New technologies and teaching ecology Snejana Dineva Trakia University – Stara Zagora, Faculty of Technics and Technologies, Food Technology, “Graf Ignatiev” str. 38, Yambol 8602, Bulgaria; E-mail: snezhana.dineva[at]trakia-uni.bg Abstract The free web-based resources are tremendously helpful in our new digital decades to teachers and students for developing and reaching good quality education in almost all possible spheres of knowledge. One of the most important missions of any research organization is to spread a knowledge. The research organizations and new technologies offers great possibilities to improve the quality of teaching by open educational channels and implementing supportive interactive materials and activities in classroom. Keywords: e-learning, ecology education, supportive interactive materials 1 Introduction Effectiveness of learning depends on quality of content and delivery mechanisms (Jain, 2016). Modern media, internet, spatial data form drones and satellite systems are helpful teacher’s approaches, making the information of processes occurring in the nature to be easier understood (Bryndza et al., 2001). In ecology, many subjects are tidily connected with the scientific information received from the new technologies, which are widely applied in a research of Earth and wildlife. For instance, the origin and assessment of pollution, prediction and consequences from disasters, as well as evaluating and conservation of natural resources. Remote sensing technology, especially aerial photography and satellite imagery, are used intensively nowadays in all over the world. Geographic information systems (GIS) estimates the natural resources, monitors the pollution and land use, exert biological control and health studies, helps for social and economic planning, disaster avoidance, and management of conservation areas and parks (Fava et al, 2010). GIS have been mentioned as a suitable approach in teaching biology, ecology, and geography, and has been adopted in many secondary schools in all over the world (Kerski, 2007; Bryndza et al., 2001; Johansson, 2006; Fava et al, 2010). 2 Educational resources from new technologies in education Learning about Earth is part of NASA's mission; NASA offers many education resources for kids, students and researchers in different fields (NASA Science, 2014). In 2004, NASA launched the Aura satellite as part of its Earth Observing System. Aura carries four science instruments, which study the atmosphere. One of the instruments is TES - Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer. As TES passes over Earth's surface, it gathers data that can give a profile of the atmosphere. The profile shows with different colours how much greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere at different altitudes. Using such of kind new digital scientific data in the lessons can help the teacher better to explain and support his point of view working in classroom. For example, distributions of ozone or other greenhouse emissions (fig.1). On figure 1, the areas of highest ozone levels are shown in red. All zones, where the red is closest to Earth's surface are situated near to the large cities in the US. Aura's polar orbit takes it