OS16F-01
2006 MATE ROV competition: Challenging Students to Design and Build ROVs for the Next Generation of Ocean Observing Systems
Teams participating in the fifth annual remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition organized by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center and the Marine Technology Society's (MTS) ROV Committee will experience first-hand many of the scientific and technical challenges that ocean observatory scientists and engineers encounter every day. That's because the competition will task the more than 1,000 middle and high school, college, and university students from Alaska to Newfoundland expected to compete to tasks associated with developing and deploying ocean observing systems. Since 2001, the MATE Center and the MTS ROV Committee have worked with industry, education, professional society, government, national marine sanctuary, and public aquarium partners across the country to challenge students to develop vehicles for tasks based on science, exploration, and industry-related missions taking place in the real world. Currently more than 60 scientists, engineers, technicians, and their organizations support the competition and the student teams. The 2006 competition will use ocean observing systems as the theme to help students develop technical, problem solving, and teamwork skills and to see how those skills can be applied in the real working world. For example, teams will face a mission scenario that requires them to design and build ROVs for tasks associated with deploying, operating, maintaining, and collecting data from ocean observatories. Teams will also research the science, engineering, technology, and careers allied with observing systems and include their findings in their technical reports and poster displays. More than 40 teams from across the U.S. and Canada are expected to participate in the international competition, which tentatively scheduled to take place in June 2006 at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Lab. Thirteen regionals, being held in northern, central, and southern California, Hawaii, Puget Sound, Texas, Florida, New England, Michigan, the Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Newfoundland, will feed into the international event. From donating time and technical expertise as team mentors and judges to contributing building materials, facilities, or funds, the ocean observatory community has the opportunity to play a role in this exciting educational program. In addition to helping guide teams through the design and building process, scientists and engineers are needed to review teams' technical reports and serve as mission officials and engineering judges. Organizations are also needed to provide hardware, supplies, and access to workshop facilities. The competition and the participating teams benefit from the involvement of observatory scientists and engineers in obvious ways, but the ocean observatory community benefits, too. In addition to heightening the awareness of observing systems both nationally and within local communities, the competition provides a venue to recruit students and/or employees and to network with other scientists, engineers, research and academic institutions, and the marine industry. It also provides the opportunity to get new ideas for creative (and often inexpensive) solutions to engineering challenges. Finally, the competition enables the ocean observing community to play an active role in developing the workforce that it will need to carry out its goals.
http://www.marinetech.org/rov_competition/index.php
OS16F-02
EARTH, EPAC, and ORION: new acronyms for a new age of ocean discovery.
Education And Research: Testing Hypotheses (EARTH) is an internally funded project at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute that is preparing for its fourth year with a focus on working with educators to develop lesson plans and activities using near-real-time data in the classrooms. The ability to collect data has not been matched by our ability to disseminate this information to the public or the educational community and it is clear that we do not know yet how to use existing data efficiently. As the MBARI observatory efforts (Moorings, MARS, and LOBO) ramp up, EARTH is beginning to be recognized as a portal to this wealth of data both archived and near-real-time. This website (www.mbari.org/education/EARTH) has a focus on data distribution (near-real-time and archived) with supporting lesson plans and activities. This project was initially funded as a scoping project for 2002 in which we identified an initial audience (high school teachers) and their needs. For the past three years, EARTH has engaged a number of educators and has been the topic of workshops at the National Marine Educator Association meetings in 2004 and 2005. In 2004, we have identified the need for greater dissemination of the EARTH effort and a desire on the part of the educators to interact more intimately with the data. The 2005 workshop that just concluded met the needs of the educators (with the exception of frequent requests for a longer workshop) and we also spent part of that time working with people who can define the educational design requirements of the observatory system (in a similar manner that science workshops are defining the science functional requirements). In a similar manner, the Education and Public Awareness Committee (EPAC) is currently working on the Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Network (ORION) Education Plan. This presentation will give an overview of the developing ORION Education Plan as well as the EARTH project.
http://www.mbari.org/EARTH
OS16F-03
Student Participation in Lisicos, the Long Island Sound Integrated Coastal Ocean Observing System
Long Island Sound (LIS) is an urban estuary in the Northeast US with over eight million people living in its watershed. LISICOS was established in 2003 as a component of a regional/national ocean observing system, with the initial goal of developing a capability to observe and understand the LIS ecosystem and predict its response to natural and anthropogenic changes. LISICOS comprises observational, process and modeling studies. The current focus of process studies is on the problem of eutrophication and hypoxia. One function of LISICOS is graduate student training. Currently, theses for two Ph.D students and two master students are directly developed from LISICOS. Six other Ph.D students use LISICOS data as a part of their theses. Along with the principal investigators, students directly participate in cruise design and execution, data analysis and publication. This presentation will give a brief overview of the LISICOS student projects, which cover studies of carbon, nutrients and organic matter fluxes in the water and in the benthic compartments, molecular studies of the phytoplankton and zooplankton communities, ecology of benthic communities, optics and circulation in the Sound. Data from the projects are shared on the internet (www.lisiscos.uconn.edu), helping communication within the scientific community, and are also used for educating other students and the public to the eutrophication problems occurring in Long Island Sound.
OS16F-04
The BRIDGE: Linking Ocean Observing and the Classroom
Ocean observing systems have become a hot-topic among scientists, educators, policy-makers, and the general public, especially since the horrific tsunami of December 2004. The need for a global network of ocean observing systems has become readily apparent. These systems, which link land-based meteorological stations, sensor-packed buoys, research vessels, undersea monitors, and satellites measure and report important biotic and abiotic data to computers and the internet, where it is available in real-time or archives to the public. Formatted and packaged for instructional purposes, these data products can bring authentic, current research into classrooms nationwide, strengthening and enriching science curricula. The Bridge, a marine science education web portal which features teacher-reviewed resources, links, educator announcements, and a discussion list, has developed 62 classroom-friendly activities based on on-line ocean science data. Several of these utilize data from ocean observing systems throughout the coastal United States and Great Lakes. Bridge Data Activities introduce teachers and students to on-line data resources and how they can be used to complement their existing curricula. Data Activities are correlated with national science educational standards and most can be adjusted to middle, secondary, and introductory college level students. This session will focus on how educators can effectively employ ocean observing system data and avoid the pitfalls. Using actual classroom-teacher feedback and examples from our Data Activities, we will discuss the pros and cons of using this type of data to explore topics in various science disciplines and how scientists and webpage designers can more effectively format their data and sites so that they can more easily be used by educators.
http://www.vims.edu/bridge/
OS16F-05 INVITED
Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research Linked to Ocean Observations: the Transect Program
As oceanography moves progressively toward increased remote observations, significant effort and resources will continue to be required for training the coming generations of oceanographers. Although much emphasis on improving technological, quantitative, and data management skills will be necessary, students will still need plenty of access to the ocean the "old fashioned" way - via oceanographic research cruise experiences. Students can participate in at-sea research experiences while contributing to data and sample collections that supplement and "sea-truth" remotely collected ocean observation data. These cruises will also serve to educate, inspire and engage tomorrow's ocean scientists: today's undergraduate students. As a first step, an undergraduate-focused program that includes at-sea data collection followed by research in the laboratory, the Transect Program, has been piloted with great success. Over the past two years, thirty-five undergraduates enrolled in one of four NSF-sponsored Transect Programs at the College of Charleston (SC. Each program included 8 to 10 undergraduate students who sailed aboard the R/V {\it Savannah} on an intensive 5-day research cruise, sampling along two parallel cross-shelf transect lines. Each cruise was followed by a rigorous 4-credit course, 'Oceanographic Research', in which students learned laboratory techniques for analyzing the biological, physical and geological samples collected. Students simultaneously conducted individual research, and presented their results at both poster and oral sessions on campus. Each student also prepared a manuscript following {\it Deep-Sea Research} guidelines. Students were evaluated on their comprehension, presentation, and defense of research results, as well as their laboratory analysis skills. Participants underwent an observable metamorphosis during the program: from undergraduate student, to deckhand, to lab technician, to ocean scientist. A series of student surveys was administered throughout each program: pre-cruise, post-cruise, end-of-semester, and post-program. Survey results show overwhelmingly that students feel more capable of conducting research and have a stronger interest in pursuing ocean science as a career. Student applications to jobs, graduate schools, scholarships and internships have shown exceptionally high acceptance rates. Several students have presented their research results at national meetings. These students have proved that at-sea/laboratory research experience is invaluable for investigating ocean science, while it significantly furthered their advancement toward a marine-oriented career. The second step is to integrate this research program with existing and planned ocean observatories. In its next phase, currently being planned, the Transect Program will include expansion to numerous institutions in the southeast and elsewhere, coordinating with coastal and ocean observatory networks while training a new generation of oceanographers. Future transect sampling lines will include ocean observatory moorings, and students will integrate observatory data into their research studies. This program has great potential to educate many new ocean scientists by engaging them in the data collection and research process. At the same time, these ocean scientists will play a critical role in sea-truthing remotely acquired data.
http://oceanica.cofc.edu/
OS16F-06
Synergy in Science: Using Ocean Observing Data on the Internet to Address Concerns in Secondary School Science
The conflict between teaching `content' and `process' in our nation's secondary school science classrooms is becoming more tense than ever in today's emerging culture of high stakes standardized exams which are, ever increasingly, being linked to graduation requirements. I propose that using real-time data from new ocean observing systems like GoMOOS (Gulf of Maine Oceanographic Observing System) addresses stakeholders' interests, thus being a valuable tool in both classroom planning and school-wide curricula programming. Using real-time data technology, schools integrate technology into classrooms using current computer technology; teachers deliver relevant content that students retain while students walk away with experience and skills in the scientific process. My presentation will address a unit in my 11th and 12th grade Environmental Science class that uses real-time physical, chemical, and biological data to model, predict, and understand ecological events in their backyard - the Gulf of Maine.
OS16F-07
Educational Products and Experiences from the North Carolina Coastal Ocean Observing System
The North Carolina Coastal Ocean Observing System, being developed as part of the South East Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System, currently provides real-time data via a developing interactive, web-based map tool. In addition to application as an information portal for the general public, this tool has been used in many educational arenas, most notably teacher continuing education seminars and a scientist taught marine technology class. A pier-based education kiosk will additionally show this visualized data. The observing system design, maintenance, and educational information dissemination results from the collaboration between many academic, government, and private sector parties. A presentation will be given that details the educational use of this map tool, in addition to other education and outreach media and venues (e.g., fishing and marine trade show exhibits) that have been developed so far through collaboration with Extension Specialists at N.C. Sea Grant; the successes and failures of those media in different venues; and the development and modification of new teaching projects that utilize the observing system.
http://marsigli.marine.unc.edu:9080/nccoos/Members/jcleary/sample-map/a-new-page/
OS16F-08
Ocean Observing Educator Institutes: Content, Methods and Lessons Learned
For the past two years, the UNH Coastal Observing Center and the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) have co-sponsored two, week long teacher workshops that offer curriculum, content and hands on experience in how ocean observation data can be used as a successful teaching tool in the classroom. Teachers ranging from grammar school to high school levels, worked to create practical lessons that incorporate ocean observing data into their current classroom settings and are using it today. This talk will explain what teachers have been learning in the UNH/GoMOOS summer Educator Institutes and how they have been using ocean observing data in their classrooms. In addition, this talk will describe the evaluation tools used to assess learning during and after the workshops as well as an analysis of the results gained from these inquiries.
OS16F-09
Building the Federal Backbone: NOAA's Efforts in Observing System Education
NOAA has recently significantly increased its commitment to promoting environmental literacy by adopting this effort as a strategic crosscutting priority, forming an Office of Education, and creating an Education Council. Another of NOAA's strategic crosscutting priorities is integrating global environmental observations and data management. NOAA possesses a vast array of observing systems that monitor oceanic, atmospheric, and terrestrial parameters. The streaming data from these systems offers broad opportunities to create real-time visualizations of dynamic Earth processes and to capture rare and spectacular events that occur on regional or global geographic scales. Making these visualizations available and understandable by the general public is a tall task. The potential return on investment, however, is large. By enabling the public to observe environmental processes and long-term trends occurring in their ``backyards'' and demonstrating the link these ``backyard'' processes have to global processes, we can build an environmentally literate public that makes more informed decisions. NOAA's Education Council realizes the educational potential that observing system data offers and has adopted Earth Observing Systems Education as a top priority. An effort is currently underway in NOAA to assess existing observing system education activities within and outside the Agency and to pilot education programs using the available streaming data. Additionally, a new funding opportunity has been created within the Office of Education for Environmental Literacy Proposals. In 2005, one of two priorities of this granting program was to support data visualization projects that utilize the data from Earth observing systems. In particular, NOAA has provided support for NOAA's Science on a Sphere data visualization display system in five museums and science centers. We are currently exploring how this data visualization display system can be used to create public understanding about what earth observing systems are, the increased scientific and monitoring power they provide, and the scientific implications of the observations. I will report on the process of assessment, some of the pilot projects we have begun, and on the Science on a Sphere museum programs.
http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/
OS16F-10
The Value of Coastal Ocean Observations: a Perspective from the Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory (COOL) in New Jersey
Ocean observing systems (OOS) are transforming the way we experience and understand the ocean. For the first time there will be continuous, sustained, near-real-time, multi-dimensional data available from the oceans, collected both from within the oceans using sensors systems and above using remote sensing methodologies. These data make possible inquiry concerning the dynamic nature of the ocean's physical, biological and chemical characteristics in both time and space. This data provides unique and meaningful access to the ocean for a broad range of users. Over the past five years, the Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory (RU COOL) and the Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence - Mid Atlantic (COSEE MA) have focused on the development of an integrated line of products and services that take advantage of the opportunities OOS provide to connect the public to the ocean in real time. In this presentation, we will provide case study examples that represent a range of tailored OOS products for a suite of identified user groups including: teacher professional development programs at the elementary, middle, and high school level, informal learning exhibits and programs through the Liberty Science Center, located in Jersey City, NJ, outreach initiatives through collaborations with mass media, and finally, coastal decision making workshops and resource development for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) in southern New Jersey. In each case study we will emphasis how we capitalized on the unique partnering opportunities between scientists and educators, how we determined the needs of our intended audiences, and finally, how we are assessing the impacts and utility of our products.
http://www.coolclassroom.org