Sims, David

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University of New HampshireUniversity of New Hampshire Scholars' RepositoryMedia Relations Administrative Offices6-29-2005UNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers ToInspire The Next GenerationDavid SimsFollow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/newsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Administrative Offices at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It hasbeen accepted for inclusion in Media Relations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For moreinformation, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu.Recommended CitationSims, David, "UNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire The Next Generation" (2005). UNH Today. 1367.https://scholars.unh.edu/news/13679/25/17, 2)21 PMUNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire The Next GenerationPage 1 of 2http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/news_releases/2005/june/ds_050629workshop.htmlRelated LinksUNH Institute for theStudy of Earth,Oceans, and Space Seasons in the Sea:Understanding Changein the Gulf of MaineThrough Buoys, Boats,and SatellitesU.S. Commission onOcean PolicyUNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire TheNext GenerationContact: David Sims603-862-5369 Science WriterInstitute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space June 29, 2005Editors: Participants in the workshop will be available for interviews on Friday, July 1, atHolloway Commons on the UNH campus in Durham. Visiting teachers will givepresentations from 9 a.m. to noon.DURHAM, N.H. – In an effort to “jump-start” teachers and ultimately engage their students inthe scientific mysteries of the deep blue sea, the University of New Hampshire’s Coastal OceanObserving Center and the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System are hosting 20 elementary,middle, and high school teachers from around the country for five days of intensiveoceanographic study. Hosted by UNH, the workshop, titled “Seasons in the Sea: Understanding Change in the Gulf ofMaine Through Buoys, Boats, and Satellites,” runs through Friday, July 1. The workshop, whichincludes a scientific cruise in the Gulf of Maine, will give educators tools they can take back totheir classrooms where, using real-time data transmitted via the Internet from a series of high-tech buoys bobbing about in the Gulf of Maine, they will be able to take their students on avirtual field trip to Casco Bay, the Scotian Shelf or any of the other eight areas populated withbuoys. The buoys gauge conditions both above and below the sea surface – from air temperatureand visibility to wave height, salinity, temperature, turbidity, etc.“By training these teachers using state-of-the-art oceanographic tools and methods, we hope toeventually reach students and bring them into the field, or into the sciences in general,” saysAmy Holt Cline, education and outreach coordinator for the Coastal Ocean Observing Center. “Ithink teachers are coming here because they need a jump-start. We hope to be the catalyst forthat and send them back excited so they can provide new materials that will, hopefully, energizetheir classrooms.” The key to success is context, Cline says. “In the classroom, if a teacher doesn’t provide enoughcontext for ‘why do we care, why does this matter?’, the lesson will flop.” The real-time datahelps give it all a real-world context. UNH oceanographer Ru Morrison, who is working with the teachers, says that context also isbeing provided by an increasing emphasis on coastal ocean observing in an effort to betterunderstand and manage our oceans, which have been characterized as being in trouble by theU.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. 9/25/17, 2)21 PMUNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire The Next GenerationPage 2 of 2http://www.unh.edu/delete/news/news_releases/2005/june/ds_050629workshop.html“Ocean observing, after the Ocean Commission Report and other efforts that have brought it intofocus, is becoming very important – the government is set to spend hundreds of millions ofdollars in the coming years,” Morrison says. (The commission, a panel of experts, includingAndrew Rosenberg of UNH, was established by the White House and charged with providingrecommendations for a new, coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy. Thecommission’s report was released last September. For more information, visithttp://www.oceancommission.gov.) The workshop theme, “Seasons of the Sea,” was chosen to emphasize the fact that the ocean, likeits terrestrial/atmospheric counterpart, is a highly dynamic, complex, and seasonably variableecosystem and the “seasons” that occur underwater due to changing levels of nutrients, salinity,temperature, etc. are what make or break already struggling fish stocks and cause things like redtide, which is at levels not seen since the 1970s. Of the workshop and its goals Cline says, “For teachers, this provides a direct link to theresearch and researchers and will provide a better understanding of what we know about thescience and a whole lot about what we don’t know – something I believe is really exciting forteachers to take back to their kids. The way science is often presented, students think we alreadyknow everything, but everything we know now is based on someone asking a question before.We want teachers to go back and take the wonder of these questions to their students.”For more information, visit: http://www.cooa.unh.edu/workshop2005.html orhttp://www.gomoos.org/.

UNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire The Next Generation

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UNH Ocean Workshop Engages Teachers To Inspire The Next Generation

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