COSEE NETWORK NEWS 2011
June 2011
 In This Issue CNN Vol. 4 No. 6 | June 2011 
Focus On...COSEE Ocean Systems Subscribe
Network Topics
COSEE National Office Updates
Working Group Updates
COSEE at Conferences
Webinars and Podcasts
Center News
COSEE Network Calendar
Resources
COSEE Centers and Council Representatives
Focus On...COSEE Ocean Systems
 
Movie
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What's new at COSEE-OS? Visit the June Center of the Month and find out!
 Network Topics
International Conference on Marine Education COSEE China is a supporter of the International Conference on Marine Education, October 21-23, 2011, in Qingdao, China. Sponsors are the Ocean University of China (OUC) in cooperation with Texas A & M University, and the organizer is the Research and Evaluation Center of Higher Education, OUC. The theme of the conference is Reform and Development in Marine Education. For more information contact For more information visit here .
 COSEE National Office Updates
Educator Workshop NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, in partnership with the Inner Space Center and COSEE, presents NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer: America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration: "Why Do We Explore?" Friday, June 24, 2011, at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, Rhode Island. Exploration and research staff will introduce Volume One of the Okeanos Explorer Education Materials Collection. Participants will learn how to use inquiry and standards-based lessons and other online resources that guide classroom inquiries into the key topics of Climate Change, Energy, Ocean Health, and Human Health.
 Working Group Updates
Adina Paytan 
Adina Paytan
Scientist Engagement Working Group Case studies for Dr. Crystal Johnson (Louisiana State University, COSEE Central Gulf of Mexico) and Dr. Adina Paytan (University of California, COSEE California) are in the process of being approved. The production team just completed a visit with Dr. Michael Castellini (University of Alaska Fairbanks, COSEE Alaska). Visits are scheduled with Dr. Joel Hoffman (Environmental Protection Agency, COSEE Great Lakes) and Dr. Jude Apple (Western Washington University, COSEE Pacific Partnerships). Please visit the COSEE Scientists Making an Impact website and contact SEW-G Chair Jessie Kastler with questions, suggestions and comments (228-872--4269).

Screenshot of the COSEE California home page
Web Working Group This month the WWG discussed pending upgrades, including implementation of an automatic image resizer and table generator, new banner photographs for the COSEE.net home page, and development of a YouTube page for COSEE video collections. For more information, contact Annette deCharon, WWG Chair.

ENTS Sub-Group The Excellence in Networking Tools Sub-Group (ENTs) recently held a Network-wide webinar that focused on creative ways to add content to Center websites. During the Network meeting, ENTS members met to discuss ideas for using social networking tools for marketing COSEE activities. ENTs is currently working on upgrading the Online Tools Guidebook and developing the next Network webinar For more information, contact one of the ENTs co-chairs Catherine Cramer and Carla Companion.
 COSEE at Conferences
AGU-NESTA The application form for a scientist/educator presenter team to participate in the AGU-NESTA Fall 2011 GIFT workshop is now available at AGU’s Education page (see the call box in the right column). The application form will be available until September 6, 2011. Please note that the GIFT workshop is being scheduled for December 5-6, 2011. If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Pranoti Asher of AGU.

Activities Needed for COSEE at USASEF The COSEE Network will host a booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival, April 27 - 29, 2012, in Washington, D.C. COSEE will share the booth with AGU in an effort to create stronger ties between the two groups. We would like to offer a variety of hands-on activities from the booth over the three days, organized into themes of physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, biological oceanography/marine biology, etc. Does your Center have additional suggestions of activities? The activities need to be:
  • Hands on
  • Very quick to conduct/explain
  • Low in equipment needs
  • Computer-less or very easy to access and conduct via smartphone
Once the list of activities is complete, we will create a web page on the COSEE site that will house the activities. From the COSEE USASEF booth, we will distribute the URL so that people can access the full list of activities from home and hopefully continue to explore the COSEE site further. Please send activity suggestions to Liesl Hotaling by July 1, 2011.
 Webinars and Podcasts
Giant Squid Podcast from the Encyclopedia of Life How do you get two dead giant squid the size of a school bus from a fishing boat in Spain to a museum in Washington, DC? Call in the Navy! Find out how Operation Calamari unfolded and how the museum managed to put their new giant squid on display. Listen to the podcast on the Learning + Education section of the Encyclopedia of Life.

ITEST Webinar The ITEST National STEM Learning Exchange, in partnership with ITEST PIs and STEM professionals who work with ITEST projects, began a quarterly public webinar series designed to provide guidance counselors and educators with resources and strategies to increase student awareness of STEM career opportunities. The series will feature STEM professionals who will speak about their fields of expertise and how they contribute positively to society. In the first on this series, on June 6, 2011, Liesl Hotaling, Co-PI of the SENSE-IT project, moderated this event and provided context and resources. Click here to view/listen to the webinar archive and resources.
 Center News
COSEE NOW Jim Yoder will be presenting a paper during the NMEA annual meeting in Boston based on the Ocean Gazing podcast and interview project led by Ari Daniel Shapiro.

COSEE OCEAN Stemming from the social network analysis discussion at the COSEE Network meeting in Newport, RI, COSEE OCEAN team members are currently completing an online survey designed to gather information about the connections among team members both before the project started, and now that the project is well into Year 1. This information, along with some additional discussions at a recently held team retreat, will be used to identify ways that the team can leverage existing connections to improve its overall impact on ocean education.

OSS teachers
In addition, the COSEE OCEAN Ocean Science Sequence (OSS) project is making progress. Educators are actively working with the OSS in both the Boston and Milton Public School districts. In Boston, a select group of seven teachers is piloting the curriculum – focusing primarily on grade five classes. At a recent meeting, those teachers identified the pros and cons of the curriculum so far. This information will help guide plans to engage more teachers and classes over the next two years. In Milton, the material has been used in professional development activities and pieces are being piloted in some classes as well, with the goal of expanding into additional classes next year.

The Graduate students for Ocean Education (GrOE) Facebook page has new content posted daily, and is growing its fan base.

COSEE Ocean Learning Communities, in collaboration with Washington Sea Grant, hosted a one-day workshop, Improving Your Broader Impacts, June 14 at the University of Washington. The workshop is an expansion of a program OLC did in 2010, including presentations by COSEE NOW, COSEE Pacific Partnerships and COSEE Alaska. The targeted audience includes scientists, faculty, staff, post docs and graduate students throughout western Washington. The workshop concluded with a social and networking opportunity for participants to meet with local and regional outreach organizations, who had displays and information on ways scientists can engage as part of their broader impacts. Information about the workshop is posted on the COSEE OLC website.

COSEE Ocean Systems Educators of all grade levels are invited to attend the COSEE Ocean Systems Curriculum Development Workshop to be held at Colby College on July 19-21. Scientists will work with educators in small groups to refine a cohesive story, based around a scientist-created concept map about one topic related to their work. The scientists will also make recommendations for data sources to incorporate. On subsequent days, graduate students will continue to work refining curriculum/program ideas.

CLIMB home page
This month, COSEE-OS launched an upgrade to their web-based, multimedia software. What started as two separate tools - the Ocean Climate Interactive and the Concept Map Builder - has now been merged, with many added capabilities, into a new application called the Concept Linked Integrated Media Builder, or CLIMB for short. In CLIMB you can release your maps to the world, view maps created by others, view and present your maps in style, and access thousands of educational assets, including videos, images, news articles, and resources. The new upgrade debuted at the Scientist/Educator Workshop hosted by COSEE-OS at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, June 3-4, 2011.

COSEE Pacific Partnerships During the second week of August 2011, COSEE Pacific Partnerships will support a 4– to 5-day workshop designed to provide community college instructors from the Pacific Islands with an up-to-date understanding of the many rapid advances that have been made in recent decades in understanding the critically important roles of microorganisms in the ecology of the oceans and the biology of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms that inhabit the seas. Details.

COSEE SouthEast is the coordinator of the NOAA Marine Debris Program award that is ending this fall. An article about the project has been published in the NOAA Coastal Services Center magazine Coastal Services. Read the article here.

Workshop participants
COSEE TEK During the summer of 2011, COSEE-TEK will be hosting three Teacher Technology Experiences (TTEs) conducted at the University of Connecticut Avery Point campus and at the facilities of COSEE-TEK partners Project Oceanology and Mystic Aquarium. For each TTE, a small group of formal and informal educators will spend a total of four days learning about and implementing novel ocean technologies in coastal Connecticut waters. Details.
 COSEE Network Calendar
For the up-to-the-minute list of upcoming COSEE events, visit the COSEE.net Events page.
 Resources
Hurricanes: Science and Society Website On May 19, 2011, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center released their 2011 Atlantic hurricane season outlook. Details and a link to NOAA’s 2011 Atlantic hurricane season outlook can be found on the homepage of the Hurricanes: Science and Society website. The information on the website is based solely on published scientific research and has undergone thorough peer review by a panel of scientific experts. The Hurricanes: Science and Society website and educational resources have been developed by the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation.

NSF Grants to Study Effects of Radiation The National Science Foundation recently awarded rapid-response grants to establish ocean radionuclide levels from Fukushima. Read the announcement.

National Ocean Policy Progress Recently the National Ocean Council released the full content outlines for the nine Strategic Action Plans (SAPs) for public comment. More information on the National Policy and SAP outlines can be found in the preface. To facilitate public input on these SAPs, the National Ocean Council is holding a series of regional public listening sessions. Visit the website for more information. President Obama released a proclamation that June 2011 will be officially recognized as National Oceans Month. In honor of this month, the President calls upon Americans to "take action to protect, conserve, and restore our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes".
Contribute to CNN! Send news and announcements of interest to the COSEE Network community to the editor, Catherine Cramer.

 COSEE Centers and Council Representatives
COSEE Alaska (Nora Deans, North Pacific Research Board)
COSEE California (Craig Strang, UC Berkeley)
COSEE Central Gulf of Mexico (Sharon Walker, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies)
COSEE Coastal Trends (Laura Murray, U of Maryland Center for Environmental Science)
COSEE Florida (Edwin Massey, Indian River State College)
COSEE Great Lakes (Rosanne Fortner, Ohio State University)
COSEE Networked Ocean World World (Janice McDonnell, Rutgers University)
COSEE OCEAN (Bob Chen, University of Massachusetts)
COSEE Ocean Learning Communities (Phil Bell, University of Washington)
COSEE Ocean Systems (Annette deCharon, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine)
COSEE Pacific Partnerships (Jan Hodder, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology)
COSEE SouthEast (Lundie Spence, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium)
COSEE TEK (Ivar Babb, University of Connecticut)
COSEE West (Linda Duguay, University of Southern California)