Basic Observation Buoy

Please note this classroom activity was developed in 2010. While it remains an effective educational resource, the costs and availability of sensors have changed since development.

Buoys hold sensors that are our real-time eyes on the water. The data they transmit can improve weather forecasts, provide real-time information on current sea conditions and increase accuracy for storm track and storm surge inundation models.

The Basic Observation Buoy (BOB) classroom activity teaches you how to make your own buoy!

Workshops

SECOORA has supported three workshops to promote and extend coastal ocean observing information, technology and societal benefits using a scaled down, but operational, “Basic Observation Buoy (BOB).”

BOB III Workshop – 2010

• Final agenda and participant list
• Lisa Adams – BOB in Action and SECOORA’s Vision for BOB
• John Black and Joe Kelley – Vegetative Cover Survey of SC Former Tidal Rice Fields
• Dan Dickerson – Project SEARCH
• Doug Levin – Build-a-Buoy
• Penny Vlahos – Applying Passive samplers to coastal observing networks and BOBs and accompanying article in press
• Pat Welsh – Updating the UNF Low-cost Water Quality Buoy
• Quint White – Use of BOBs in Partnership with High School Faculty and Students

BOB II Workshop – 2010

• BOB II Workshop Report

BOB I Workshop – 2009

• BOB I Workshop Report