It's one small ocean out there. I am determined to keep on learning more and more about it. Exactly one week ago, I was on a one day mission on the Robert C. Seamans, a tall ship whose mission is to teach sailing and science. CMORE-Hawaii (The Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education) hosted a free sail for Grades 6-12 teachers on this wonderful ship on Saturday May 29. As I was sailing out of Honolulu harbor, what did I spy?
From the Arctic to Hawaii it was so good to see her again!
Here is the Healy and me in Honolulu Harbor on May 29.
Last night was the weekly Science Club meeting. I have a loyal group of about 10 students who are willing to give up sitting in front of a TV, or listening to their music player to spend two hours learning more about science. I don't think I'd want too many more, their questions are so numerous that I have a steady buzz in my ears when we are done.
So it was time to get the learning adventure activity and displays planned and set. here it is two weeks into our second quarter of school, we need to get out to the elementary schools and TEACH! So I turned over what I had been working on over our intersession, display boards with laminated titles and subtitles, with corresponding ideas I thought they could run with. Each group chose TWO boards and they went to work planning their experience...
Being a subsistance people, the Inupiat rely on the animals from their environment for food. I don't want to mislead the general public to think that skin boats and ivory harpoons are used to hunt whales in the Arctic. Whaling and other subsistance hunting have incorporated modern technology.
There are snowmobiles that drag the boats from village to the ocean, and those boats can be aluminum or skin. The harpoons aimed at the whales contain explosive tips that cause great damage, death being the ultimate goal. Afterall, the Inupiat eat these animals. It is a source of food for them. However, unlike the European slaughter of thousands of whales for oil and fashion in the early 1900s, the Inupiat take and store what they need to survive.
And as it is in any society, there are a few that...
The experience of a lifetime is one of the first things I tell anyone about my adventure in the Arctic. My life has been changing for over a year. I moved from North Carolina and left the formal education classroom to pursue a career as an informal educator at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio. Still if that wasn’t enough, I also got engaged and was planning for a July wedding.
So change is good and I have had non-stop change since I left the classroom. It was by coincidence that I even thought to go for the PolarTREC program and it was amazing to have the support of an entire museum behind me. The thrill of finding out that I would be going to the Arctic and getting to do real research was all I could think about.
Once again, I was confronted with change. The Bering...
I have been a teacher for a long time, long enough to know some teaching strategies that work. When you have to teach others about what you know, you truly learn.
So my science club kids are learning all about the Bering Sea and the research done onboard the Healy during the Spring of 2007. They are learning through activities that I have created for younger students. My science club kids are my cognitive guinea pigs.
We meet every Tuesday for two hours after school, crazy Mrs. Prevenas and her eclectic tribe of science quiznos. As we do the lessons, I ask them what they think about it. Are they learning? What works and what doesn't? What needs to be added so that it is a good learning experience? After three weeks of science club, we are making progress.
We have sung songs and jumped...
Living on an island in the middle of the ocean has it's ups and downs. So does being an indigenous people.
One of the reasons I wanted to be a part of PolarTREC so badly, was that I wanted my students to learn about other cultures who experience their same lifestyle. My wish came through when I hooked up with Tonia Kushkin's class on St. Paul.
Last week I got a package in the mail, an invitation for my students to be penpals, with hers. My students are delighted to join hands with hers and learn more about the Pribilof Islands and their unique culture.
We had our first 'Lunchtime Letters Club' meeting yesterday. My students listened with great interest as I told them about my one day visit to St. Paul. I brought down the calendar that Tonia had sent and their eyes scanned each month's...
Sometimes wonderful things happen to you when you least expect it.
Grant writing is indeed a long and involved process. Don't let anyone convince you that it's not. However, once in a while, you become the focus of OTHERS hard work, and can get funding in a serendipitous way.
That is what happened to me on Friday.
Funding came through for a grant that my 'new' team was involved with last year. It will allow us to take our students to a beautiful preserved spot right on the ocean. The spot was purchased to preserve the land, study the history of how the land was used by the ancient Hawaiians, and do baseline studies to document the land as it is.
Part of the grant will be spent in supporting the curriculum that will be developed by the teachers who use the area in place based education...
So these new lessons require materials to do them. My science budget hasn't changed. So how to finance?
Write grants.
There are often small grants available designed for teachers to get money to implement unique integrated curriculum. The problem is sniffing out those grants, and finding the time to apply. 15 years ago, I was fortunate to have had a job in which a large portion was devoted to getting money to support performing arts. Knowing that most grants are thrown out for not following the directions is a big leg up in the competition process.
So here I am applying for grants to support my new activities. I ask everyone. I have no shame. When it comes to getting money so that my students can do real science, or integrate the arts into science, or to help students 'give back' to...
I am on a mission. My mission is to enlighten all 150 of my students (plus anyone else who cares to sit down and listen to my stories) about Global Warming. My mission is to plant seeds in my students heads and get them to start thinking about the research being done with Global Warming. My mission is to nurture them in the ways of scientific inquiry,to think out side the box, to collect data and problem solve. So where to start? How do you help them learn?
You listen with your eyes.
My students began their learning this week, by learning about the beauty of the diatom. Diatoms are very important in the spring ice algae bloom in the Bering Sea. They ARE the spring bloom. The problem with teaching this to students is that diatoms are so very very small, and our microscopes are so very...
The first Hawaii Science Standard is all about doing science. Hawaii is big on asking the teachers to change their ivory pali wordspeak into real talk. I give it to my students like this,"I can do science like scientists do!!!" the three exclamation points are very important.
Sounds simple, but I have created a check list of skills that they must achieve before I let them off the hook and allow them to mark the standard as achieved. The check list is down below.
To make learning science more meaningful and to connect what we are learning at school with home or culture is a requirment for me and my curriculum. So I ask students to do a Home Project in which they ask their parent (or adult at home) to tell them a story that they remember being told when younger. Then the student...
OK-
So when school started, my team's math teacher came into my room and bumped into the gigantic shrunken seal that had been soaking for 6 weeks. 'WOW!' he says. 'I want to be a part of this, let's plan on doing something with our advisories to help them brush up their skills of measuring and make it meaningful.'
He agreed to make the prediction sheet and I was to write the story to get the kids engaged.
Sealsitting
I seal sat a young spotted seal as her mumma was being tagged.
So I did. His seal was Sami, mine was Su-Sea. We read our students the saga of how we came in possesion of the creatures and what would happen once they were rehydrated.
My first customer
My first seal sitting customer.
There was a lot of science and math to do inbetween.
reasontosit
This is the reason...
Ya HUH!
Just because I got off the ship in May doesn't mean my job is over. Actually this is when all the REAL fun begins. This is where I begin to tell my story.
I missed my dear students so much while on the mission. When we were united on May 16, I had so many aloha hugs. It was a block day, so I got to talk story with each of my classes for 70 minutes, share root beer floats (I promised) and give them the IPY Webinar of Marine Mammals. My dear substitute teacher had all 6 of my classes compete to create the BEST welcome back poster so the back of my room was a wash with color! An added bonus was the neatness of my classroom. I saw the top of my demonstration table for the first time since last July, IMAGINE!
The next week, our morning broadcast director asked me to create a slide...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
I waited until most people had left the airplane before I gathered up my gear, treasures, and technology equipment. So many people, in such a hurry, and my senses were overloaded; the bright lights and loud sounds of rush hour in a huge international airport shook me to my toes. I continued through the terminal as I had approached my entire journey, one step at a time.
I realized there were only one or two airlines in this terminal so I knew I had to do some investigating. Walking, walking, walking past many, many, many people, gosh that was something! I had to kindly interupt a Security Guard, an airport cleaning staff, and a sky cap before I even approached the terminal of my last flight.
Los Angeles airport is set up like a big horseshoe with the terminals like nails in the hoof. In...
From the morning buffet, I knew my time was counting down and it was very sad. I felt that the past 35 days were just such an incredible learning adventure that I didn’t want it to end. Not to mention, I didn’t want to leave Maggie. I wondered what it would be like to not have any daily contact with her and all her enthusiasm.
So I left Dutch Harbor for a very long day and night of travel. I reached Anchorage, AK and then had a large layover but got the best surprise. I bumped into David Hyrenbach who was also waiting for a flight. So just when I thought my time with all the many friends and scientists was about to end, I got to scrape a little bit of time and tea with him. We had a great catch-up on what we had done since departing the Healy and then I watched him head back...
Monday arrived cold and snowy. I peeped out of the warm hotel room and looked at the snow blusters that swirled and danced across the gravel. I had a number of things to mail, and the USPO was right across the road. Guess I better start my day.
It wasn’t planned, but I made three separate trips to the Post office that day. I needed to mail a beautiful large map of Alaska to Hawaii. I needed to mail the squished decorated styrofoam cups back to my new friends from St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, and I needed to send my cold weather gear back to VECO in Fairbanks, Alaska.
In between the trips to the PO, I was drawn to the edge of the bay as it licks the main drive that curls around the mountains of the island. I heard it before I saw it, the musical sound that cold ocean water makes...
Hi everyone!
This is my last journal entry- I'm back home in Bellingham, WA. It's beautiful and green here, much different than the Bering Sea (Which was beautiful, but in a different way). It's nice to be home and in my own bed again, but I will definitely miss the USCGC Healy and all the wonderful people I met while at sea for 5 weeks. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I made some great friends and memories. I will be participating in the BEST cruise next year, but the friends and memories will not be the same. Thank you to everyone who read my journal and wrote comments!
Cheers!
Emily
It took Robyn and me quite a while to get off the boat. I was waiting around to send my cold weather gear via parcel pick-up. Robyn had a great idea that we could take our time and say our goodbye to our friends, eat one last lunch, and then take a taxi into town.
So we hugged and hugged all our Bering Sea Shipmates and called a taxi to the hotel. Just as our taxi arrived, the Alaska Maritime Shipper did as well, so we departed the Healy and took on a new residence at the Grand Aleutian Hotel in town.
After we hauled out duffels to our rooms, we took time talking to our loved ones still at home, a long shower, and then rendezvoused for supper with whoever was in the dining room. All the food was delicious! We had fresh green salads again, and so much more.
I went back to my room,...
As we made our way towards Dutch Harbor the real Bering Sea came to life, the ship rocked back and forth and the front bow was closed off due to the roughness. It was nice to experience the Bering Sea as most fishermen face on a daily basis. Of course, it was even nicer to have had such smooth sailing on the Healy. Still the rough seas drew a large crowd to the bridge to watch in awe as wave after wave crashed into the ship bringing water and spray onto the bow and even spraying the windows of the bridge.
The bow is sprayed with water as a wave crashes into the ship.
The heavy rocking from side to side made it hard to walk and even harder to get from deck to deck. It really was a good thing that we didn't experience this for the whole trip. This rocking did make it easier to fall...
I had learned from Dr. Michael Cameron, that we were about to pass through the most concentrated seal soup of the entire mission around 9:30 yesterday evening. He said that there were so many seals in that region, that the helo opps (helicopter observations) had to take turns recording their seals. Waiting for one to finish until the other could sight verbally.
Two Walrus
So what do YOU see? There are two walrus here.
So I rambled up the three ladders to the bridge, and as I have for so many days this cruise, screwed the binocular eye cradles into my eye sockets and swooped back and forth across the magnified ice vista.
Maggie - Observing
I LOVED to go up to the bridge and observe.
What did I see? Lots and lots of seals! There were spotted seals, and ribbon seals, and even a bearded...
I had learned from Dr. Michael Cameron, that we were about to pass through the most concentrated seal soup of the entire mission around 9:30 yesterday evening. He said that there were so many seals in that region, that the helo opps (helicopter observations) had to take turns recording their seals. Waiting for one to finish until the other could sight verbally.
Two Walrus
So what do YOU see? There are two walrus here.
So I rambled up the three ladders to the bridge, and as I have for so many days this cruise, screwed the binocular eye cradles into my eye sockets and swooped back and forth across the magnified ice vista.
Maggie - Observing
I LOVED to go up to the bridge and observe.
What did I see? Lots and lots of seals! There were spotted seals, and ribbon seals, and even a bearded...
So on the ship at some point the science party has got to start to wind down. The actual sampling begins to slow and soon, for some, no more cores to section or mud to analyze. This was just the case with the WWU and UW crew. Bonnie Chang finished the last of her flux analysis and realized she still had a large supply of liquid nitrogen. Usually that means an ice cream social is in order. Maggie went to ask for the necessary ingredients and found there was no cream or half and half on the ship. To spare everyone’s disappointment, Emily and I just had to think of something to do with all that liquid nitrogen. Afterall, there are only so many things you can freeze before that even gets old. So we put our heads together and decided we should make an experiment using the liquid nitrogen.
We...
I’ve been feeling a little sad these past few days because the Healy 0701 mission is coming to a close. There’s been so much data taken, so many measurements done, and more than a few hypotheses tested. So WHAT has been learned?
Rough Water
The CTD was lowered and fired over 200 times.
This research here, this Bering Sea Ecosystem Study, has been some of the first research done with SEASONAL ice during this time of the year. SEASONAL ice is ice that melts and then reforms each year. The algae blooms occur because the seasonal ice melts, creating a stable freshwater layer, a place for the algae to grow. The algae take up nutrients, which act as a fertilizer, and explode in numbers. The nutrients are quickly used up. The bloom for that year is over.
Iron Rob
Rob Rember tested the...
I went up to the bridge earlier today to do an ice observation and noticed quite a crowd. I found out as I took my three photos of the ice that the ship was heading toward a herd of walrus. Of course, not too close and under the supervision of walrus specialist, Carleton Ray, the ship was approaching the herd within minutes. Carleton had waited in anticipation all day for just the right ice conditions that would bring some walrus into view.
Carleton Views
Carleton Ray checks with his binoculars the location of the walrus herd.
Carleton Ray wasn’t always interested in walruses. In fact, his early years were spent at Yale working with amphibians. He continued his work with amphibians and physiological ecology at Berkeley and finished his PhD at Columbia. Even today, he still has a...
