Highlights on Educators

Congratulations to Sandie Nichols and James Island Middle School for being the recipient of the 2009 Donna Bates Award!

Sandie Nichols’ fifth period science class working on the "Trash Hurts" project, James Island Middle School.

The 2009 Donna Bates Award, an award that began in 2006 in "an effort to encourage improvement and support of coastal science and coastal environment instructions in the eight coastal counties of South Carolina," was awarded to Sandie Nichols.  Nichols, a sixth grade science teacher at James Island Middle School, was recognized for her project entitled, "Trash Hurts," which called for students to take neighborhood surveys in order to determine the amount of vehicle litter being released into the coastal region.  The $2,000 grant, awarded to the school and Nichols by SCDHEC’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Recource Management and in partnership with COSEE SouthEast, will allow students to address the vehicle litter problem directly by designing, producing and distributing trash receptable bags that will hang from the back of vehicle seats. To view SCDHEC’s official press release on the 2009 Donna Bates Award, please visit http://www.scdhec.gov/administration/news/2009/nr20090114-01.htm

Details on the 2010 Donna Bates Award will be available in Fall 2009.  For more information on this award, please visit the SCDHEC-OCRM website at http://www.scdhec.gov/environment/ocrm/outreach/bates.htm

Venetia Butler and Kelly Sears join the MARGINS research cruise to New Zealand with Dr. Clark Alexander, SkIO

• View the PowerPoint as a resource for student activity
• Source to Sink: MARGINS: Lesson Plan Based on the Research and using the power point presentation
• Simulated Coring: Student Activity Guide based on Source to Sink
• Kelly Sears engages her schools with MARGINS concepts

In order to learn more about the New Zealand research objectives, visit the following websites:

2005 cruise: http://coastal.geology.ecu.edu/nz/

MARGINS background information for the Waipaoa system: http://baby.indstate.edu/gomez/margins.html

And the background on which the research was planned for Waipaoa in 2003: http://www.vims.edu/margins/finalreport.html

Check out Middle School Science Teacher at Newport, NC
Miriam Sutton, posts her Teacher at Sea and other experiences by following the Adventure links posted on my classroom webage: http://www.armadaproject.org/journals/2006-2007/sutton/8-5.htm Scroll toward the bottom of the webpage to locate the adventure links. They include blogs, photos, and activities. Enjoy!

BOTTOMS-UP Cruises, SkIO, Savannah, GA
Teachers, Karen Moyd and Jeff Graham, join the "Bottoms Up" Research Cruise with Dr. William Savidge, SkIO. (Word doc.) "BenthicObservatory and Technology Testbed on the Mid-Shelf - Understanding Processes" is a multi-year research programs. Teachers participate on cruises and in the laboratory learning about ocean sciences.

Read the Greenville News article: ’Moyd’s ocean adventures open eyes to research"
View the PowerPoint (26MB), HTML version; PDF document
Download "BOTTOMS-UP" Curriculum and Marine Science Activity Book Word Document (29 MB)

Dr. Liz Mann, SkIO, will work with Annie Baldwin
who was chosen from national applicants to accompany scientists aboard a research vessel to explore iron’s influence on phytoplankton growth at various depths.

Read this article from The Sun News, ’Carolina Forest science teacher takes to sea’ (pdf)

"Windows to the Deep" cruise with NOAA OE
COSEE SE Education Specialist, Margaret Olsen, spent two weeks with the NOAA OE exploring the slope and Blake Plateau off the South Atlantic Bight. She developed a great power point program and collected artifacts for presentations.

Part I: The Science (PowerPoint 22mb) includes the purpose, scenes of "the science" and the summary of findings. It has 29 slides.

Part II: The Alvin Launch and Recovery (PowerPoint 40mb) has 44 slides.

Information about the Alvin, the Atlantis and the Windows to the Deep Research Cruise on Ocean Explorer website: http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/explorations.html

Activities to go along with the "Windows to the Deep" PowerPoint!
Bell-Toss Sonar: Students can use small bells and their own sound receptors (ears) to simulate a crude SONAR device and cautiously navigate through their classroom
Raise the Sub: Submarine and submersibles explore the sea floor using utilizing physical science concepts, such as buoyancy and density.
In Plain Sight: Exploring the seafloor and learning about its features depends on how you gather the scientific data for mapping and also the appearance of the map itself. New technologies enable us to "see" more and better.