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Center Updates - 10.17.2008
COSEE Central Gulf of Mexico
COSEE Central Gulf of Mexico had a successful Annual Management Team/Advisory Board Meeting at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory - J.L. Scott Marine Education Center in Ocean Springs on October 2-4. Gail Scowcroft, COSEE Central Coordinating Office (CCO) National Network Director, attended. In July the Center completed the Mississippi and Florida online components of the 2008 Teacher/Scientist Summer Institute, which involved 22 classroom teachers and 6 research/social scientist presenters. The case study data for teachers revealed the greater the length of time scientists spend with teachers in both the "face to face" and online components of the Summer Institutes, the more positive is the paradigm shift that occurs between these two groups of professionals.
Middle and high school teachers from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama spent two full days at the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center interacting with Dr. Ian MacDonald, a deep-sea biologist from Texas A&M University and Ms. Liz Goehring from Penn State University, learning about the deep ocean, hydrothermal vents and how to make connections from this extreme environment to the local environment. Teachers tried hands-on and online activities that are part of a pilot program, FLEXE: From Local to Extreme Environments, a new National Science Foundation-funded GLOBE project. Additional funding from the Minerals Mangement Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are extending the work to bring cold-seep research into the project. MORE >>
COSEE Coastal Trends
On September 29, thirty-seven ninth-grade students who are enrolled in Dorchester County's new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Initiative participated in COSEE Coastal Trends Ocean Observing Systems activities at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Horn Point Laboratory. The students examined real-time data transmitted from various ocean observing system buoy networks and collected their own water quality data in the field. The STEM Initiative is an advanced four-year program of study for high school students, carried out in partnership with the UMCES Horn Point Laboratory to prepare them for future opportunities in colleges and careers by focusing on enhancing skills and understanding of STEM subjects. MORE >>
COSEE Great Lakes
O'LAKERS reaches students with Great Lakes science! Each state in COSEE Great Lakes has funds for support of student experiences called Ocean/Lake-Aware Kids Engaged in Relevant Science [O'LAKERS]. Some recent highlights include:
- In Cleveland, the Great Lakes Science Center worked with partners in the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Center Association, which provides human services and education to families and children of some of Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods. Through COSEE funding, 100 inner-city children saw the IMAX science film, Mysteries of the Great Lakes, and did dockside activities in a week of Great Lakes Adventure.
- In Erie, Pennsylvania, middle school students from the gifted programs at Fort LeBoeuf and Shenango Valley schools sailed aboard the S/V Denis Sullivan when it docked on its way south to its winter programs in Florida. The half-day Lakewatch Expedition cruise involved students in water quality testing, studies of life in Lake Erie, and lessons in navigation and seamanship aboard the schooner.
- Native American students in grades 7-12 from the Fond du Lac Ojibway school visited the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth. They participated in a Lake Laboratory and Behind-the-Scenes tour focusing on science skills and education needed for operation of such a facility.
For more information, visit each of these centers.
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