The Mid-Atlantic Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE-MA) would like to announce three items available from our center as tools for teaching and curricula development: the Eutrophication Kit, the Oil Spill Activity, and the Invasive Species Game. These materials were first made available in professional development courses for middle school educators across the Mid-Atlantic. Each item was professionally evaluated by the teachers who attended the course and tested in their classrooms throughout the following school year.
Read more...

A recent report published by the American Council on Education claims that Hispanic and African American students may take more time to graduate from a STEM field- Science, technology, engineering, mathematics- than their white or Asian counterparts. As first reported in the Chronicles of Higher Education, African Americans, Hispanics Whites or Asians were about as likely to major in a STEM field. However, graduation rates for Hispanic or African American STEM students were lower due to obstacles in their third or fourth years of college. Data for the study came from the U.S. Department of Education as they followed and interviewed 12,000 students entering college in 1995. An inferior groundwork for college-level academics as well as need for extra income while in school may have prevented some students from finishing within six years. But the data were not completely adequate for a full race-based comparison. The report also noted related demographic trends in graduation rates for college students such as wealthier students, earlier starters, students with parents with degrees, and students who came from a rigorous secondary school program were more likely to graduate in six years.

To order a copy of the American Council on Education report:
http://www.acenet.edu/bookstore/pubInfo.cfm?pubID=369

In April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration placed buoys on five locations along the Caribbean and Gulf Coast of the United States as a precautionary measure for tsunamis. The project, called DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis system), already has buoys in various locations along the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The new buoys are improved from previous DART models in their communication abilities and have been named DART II. A DART II buoy contains a unit at the water's surface that sends data through satellite links and a unit on the ocean floor to detect the presence of tsunami waves through pressure readings. A total of seven Alantic DART II buoys and 32 Pacific buoys are expected to be online within the next two years.

Also, Norfolk was recently distinguished as being one of the first cities that are tsunami-ready. The city has developed evacuation plans along with public education components and communication networks to achieve this.

For more information:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2613.htm

DART II information:
http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/Dart/dart_ref.html

At the Education and Outreach Council meeting April 24-25, 2006, Rob Smith (Fugro GEOS) presented information on scholarship opportunities for 2006. These scholarships are sponsored by The Society for Underwater Technology - Houston Chapter (SUT Houston) and offer three $5000 undergraduate scholarships and one $10,000 graduate scholarship. Information can be found in the press release (pdf). Deadline for application is June 15, 2006.

Educational Testing Service is currently recruiting individuals with a background in K-12 science education to write test questions for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This document provides brief descriptions of NAEP and the positions available. ETS is especially in need of teachers with elementary or Earth science teaching experience.

NEW NSF CENTERS ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION BETWEEN OCEAN SCIENTISTS, EDUCATORS

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded three new grants in its Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) program, bringing the total number of the centers to 10. Each new COSEE will receive $2.5 million over five years.

The new centers are the COSEE Great Lakes (University of Michigan and others); COSEE Ocean Systems (Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, and others); and COSEE Ocean Learning Communities (University of Washington, Seattle, and others). NOAA Sea Grant is contributing approximately 50 percent of the funding for the COSEE Great Lakes.

Read the complete article here.

NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN HEAT CONVEYOR BELT WEAKENS..SO WHAT?
by JOHN CARRIGER AND ERICA HOLLOMAN

Global warming may be responsible for the weakening of the North Atlantic heat conveyor belt which transports heat from the tropics to temperate zones in the Northern Hemisphere. In the subtropical region of the Atlantic, warm water in the upper layers of the ocean moves clockwise in a large horizontal circle. Some of this water flows north and crosses an area known as the Greenland-Scotland Ridge (GSR). It is this northward movement of warm water that is responsible for the mild climate experienced by Europe in addition to keeping the Nordic Seas mostly ice free. This current (called the Gulf Stream) keeps Northern European countries relatively warm compared to North American land masses on the same latitude. Water crossing the GSR becomes colder, denser, and eventually sinks only to return southward by flowing deep on the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean basin in a process called 'overturning circulation'.

Currently, scientists are using global atmosphere-ocean circulation models to predict the effects of global warming on the North Atlantic heat conveyor. Theoretically, global warming will cause an increase in fresh water input into the Arctic regions of the Atlantic due to the melting of the Greenland ice cap and enhanced precipitation. This would in turn decrease salinity thereby reducing the density of the surrounding seawater. Circulation models predict that if this occurs, movement of the Atlantic heat conveyor will slowdown and cause a drop of as much as 4°C in temperature throughout Europe. In a recent article in Nature, scientists provide the first observational evidence that the weakening of the Atlantic heat conveyor has began. These scientists have collected information over the last five decades and analyzed ocean temperature and salinity data from 25°N across the subtropical Atlantic. Many scientists are still cautious about these results since the cross section taken is relatively small and variability is high. However, the observed weakening is statistically significant and there are other observations that support the results.

The majority of global atmosphere-ocean circulation models agree that under global warming conditions, the North Atlantic heat conveyor will slowdown. Nevertheless, direct observations are still essential. Recently, Scandinavian oceanographers deployed temperature and salinity recorders along the 25°N subtropical location in addition to monitoring the northern portion of the conveyor belt. Coupled with modeling, direct observations may therefore provide early warnings of any possible cessation of the conveyor which could have overwhelming effects on the socio-economic circumstances in countries bordering the eastern North Atlantic.

Reference:
Quadfasel, D. 2005. The Atlantic Heat Conveyor Slows. Nature 438: 565-566.
New York Times article- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/science/earth/01climate.html

INITIAL BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL RESULTS FROM NEW ORLEANS FLOOD WATERS PROMPTS A HEALTH GUIDANCE, by ERICA HOLLOMAN

In addition to disrupting the coastal observing systems in the Gulf, Katrina has also created serious aquatic health issues. Post Katrina, many water ways throughout the Gulf are now contaminated and pose serious health issues for many residents. Many of these coastal observing systems provide scientists with both the physical and chemical real- time data essential to understanding aquatic environments that have been impacted by natural or man-made disasters. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the initial biological results from flood water samples collected from New Orleans contained high levels of E. coli. Based on that preliminary information, EPA and the Center for Disease and Control (CDC) issued a health guidance to avoid human contact with the flood water when possible. Initial chemical results of flood water samples indicated that the concentration of lead exceed EPA's drinking water action levels. As of September 11, 2005, the flood water sampling chemical data became available to the public and can be accessed from EPA's web site (Test Results). For more information on the latest EPA updates on biological and chemical results and health advisories, click on the following link: http://www.epa.gov/katrina/.

Reference: http://www.epa.gov/

HURRICANE KATRINA MAY HAVE DAMAGED OCEANIC OBSERVING SYSTEMS IN THE REGION, by JOHN CARRIGER

Satellites and buoys were able to gather important and historical real-time data on one of the most destructive storms in the U.S. But Hurricane Katrina may have also damaged oceanic observing systems in the region. On the morning of August 29th, the last transmission from a NOAA buoy came in, just as Katrina's eye reached the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) in Miss. As part of the National Weather Service, the NDBC oversees the maintenance and development of a network of ocean observing systems and processes their data for the public. Through the work of NOAA employees, the NDBC website was back online September 4th and operational by the 5th. But as of Wednesday, September 7th, the National Coastal Data Development Center's website was still down and their offices in Stennis Space Center, MS were abandoned. The National Coastal Data Development Center maintains and disseminates data on coastal regions for environmental, scientific, and policy purposes.

References:
http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ncddc.html
http://www.stormsurf.com/page2/news/news.shtml
http://www.geoplace.com/mobile/news.asp?a=563363

Take your students on a field trip through our nation's estuaries without ever leaving your classroom on September 22 and 23, 2005! Celebrate National Estuaries Day 2005 by taking a free, interactive field trip through our nation's estuaries over the Internet. Click here to learn more!
See the EstuaryLive 2005 flyer
For more information, contact Becky Weidman, National Estuaries Day Coordinator

The newly released report, The New Latino South, explores current U.S. demographic trends, finding that the Hispanic population is the most rapidly growing group in the Southeast. The report indicates: "Examined both individually and collectively, these communities display attributes that set them apart from the nation as a whole and from areas of the country where Latinos have traditionally settled." Educators eager to optimally engage the diverse students of the Southeast may want to browse this PEW Hispanic Center report.

According to 2004 and 2005 surveys, the great majority (85-86%) of ocean observing system scientists feel it is important to be involved in K-12 and public education. And roughly 70% of surveyed scientists report already working with educators by contributing presentations, professional development workshops, and web materials. Available time is a major barrier to interaction so contact your local scientist, but be thoughtful of his/her schedule!

Click here to read the full survey summary.

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is pleased to announce the launching of two live webstreams available for viewing through our lab website. We have added an "ospreycam" to the original "scubacam" streaming video feed. The former shows the nest of a pair of ospreys who have just returned and should have eggs in the nest very soon. The latter is a live video feed from underneath the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory research pier showing underwater life on a small oyster bar. Both should be extremely interesting, once temperatures encourage more benthic activity and the osprey young hatch.  You will need QuickTime in order to view these webcams.

To view the images,
1) go to www.oyster.umd.edu,
2) click on the "video gallery' link at the top,
3) then click on the "streaming webcams" link.
4) Click on either image to start the video stream.

PBS's Strange Days Focuses on Invaders
The National Geographic will premier its "Strange Days on Planet Earth" on PBS April 20 from 9-11 EST. Hosted by Edward Norton, the first episode examines invasive species.

Check out this PBS website to learn more about invasive species,http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/invaders/

Online Workshop for Educators, April 22 - May 15
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation
http://www.coexploration.org/tsunami

The College of Exploration is offering a three week online workshop for educators on tsunamis, with particular emphasis on the December 2004 tsunami. The workshop is sponsored by the Division of Ocean Sciences (Directorate for Geosciences) of the National Science Foundation and is supported by COSEE-WEST.

The purpose of the workshop is to provide opportunities for educators to learn about current tsunami research, to interact with leading scientists, and to obtain resources for classroom use. The workshop will take place entirely online as a virtual campus and will be held from April 22 through May 15.

Educators may earn one graduate credit from California State University-Fullerton. For more information and to sign up now, go to http://www.coexploration.org/tsunami

http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/latte/pressroom/ss.html

From here to Canada, winter’s ice is melting, and every day the mighty Hudson River sends a whopping 500 billion gallons of river water into the Atlantic Ocean and along and past the New Jersey coast. Of course the river water isn’t perfectly clean. With it come contaminants from air pollution, people and industry; nutrients like fertilizers that wash off the land, and dead and living plants and animals – everything from tiny plankton to big fish. At Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, ocean scientists keep an eye on this Hudson River flow as it enters the salty ocean. All year around they use satellites, robot submarines and a special coastal radar called CODAR to watch where the flow goes and what’s in it. But now with the spring flow at its heaviest, it’s ADVENTURE TIME! For the third year in a row, scientists and students from Rutgers Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) and other organizations will pack up their scientific equipment and seasick pills and head off our coast as part of the five year LaTTE project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The voyage portions of LaTTE put Rutgers scientists right in the middle of the HUDSON RIVER PLUME – the stream of water, creatures, materials and chemicals that come down the Hudson River and affect life in, and off the coast of, the Garden State.

Click here for an interactive intro.

Sixty nations will fund construction of a new worldwide observing system in the next decade. According to the scientific journal, Nature, representatives of each of these nations met in Brussels for discussions in the wake of the devastating Asian tsunami. Construction on the new project, called Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GOESS), will be funded with a yearly multi-million dollar price tag. GOESS is considered to be the most comprehensive international observing system projects and many existing national and international projects will be incorporated into it. U.S. Commerce Secretary, Carlos Guiterrez supported GOESS, calling it, the "pulse of the globe." One of the key focuses of the project will be to make the data generated accessible to many different groups. The potential of GOESS to monitor global change has many scientists and managers excited about its implementation.

Reference:
Butler, D. 2005. Global observation project gets green light. Nature vol. 433: pg. 789.

See also:  http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov/wwwhwashnews2281.html

The Research and Education: Volcanoes, Exploration and Life (REVEL) Project invites 7-12 grade science teachers to bring cutting-edge earth and ocean research into their classrooms.

This NSF-funded program is a personal and professional development program for educators. Through the program teachers are immersed in the scientific process as they explore the seafloor of the Juan de Fuca Plate in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Participants are involved in sea-going field research alongside scientists. In addition professional development opportunities are offered to help teachers increase their content knowledge, and enhance their science inquiry teaching skills. Members of a network of researchers and education colleagues passionate about Earth and ocean sciences, REVEL teachers transfer their experience to the classroom, many colleagues and their communities.

Applications for the 2005 REVEL sea-going season are available on line at http://www.ocean.washington.edu/outreach/revel/ Applications must be postmarked by March 31, 2005. Interested teachers are encouraged to explore the past programs on the web site. For more information, contact Véronique Robigou.

A new American Educational Research Association (AERA) study explores achievement gaps remaining for African American and other minority students. Promising programs are highlighted in the study report which was published in the second volume of the Fall 2004 AERA publication, Research Points. The report suggests that "a demanding curriculum and a strong social support system that values and promotes academic achievement" are common themes in many successful programs. A pdf copy of this report can be found at https://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Journals_and_Publications/Research_Points/RP_Fall-04.pdf.

After devastating tsunamis struck 12 countries in Asia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Chief has called for a global monitoring system to avoid similar tragedies in the future, as reported by the Associated Press. Conrad C. Lautenbacher claims that the technology currently exists for such a system but nations have not planned to implement it yet. NOAA currently oversees a network of buoys in the Pacific Ocean that have tsunami-warning capabilities and plans to expand this network in the future. A network like this does not currently exist in the Indian Ocean where the tsunami originated. India recently claimed to be interested in implementing a new monitoring system there and several countries have signed agreements to share data collected on earth observations to protect against disasters around the world as well as protect environmental and economic resources.

Links
Tsunami warning system takes shape
http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/opedstory0112WWAVES.htm
http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=4218
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june05/tsunami_1-11.html
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-01/12/content_408140.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/11/content_2446276.htm
http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag153.htm
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2358.htm
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/25215-1.html

To aid victims of the tsunami
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=369925

Several petroleum spills have occurred in U.S. coastal waters over the past two months. The latest happened near Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands. On December 8, nearly 500,000 gallons of viscous fuel oil was released when a soy bean freighter ran aground. Due to turbulent waters, emergency response teams have had a difficult time reaching the spill to even assess it. Ship crew members of the freighter are presumed dead. The area around Aleutian Islands is famous for its biological diversity and remoteness from human influence.

On November 26, around 30,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Delaware River, near Philadelphia, when a tanker hit an underwater hazard. Birds, turtles, and fish were reported dead and scores of wildlife were in critical condition. Emergency crews deployed floating booms to retain the oil and rescue workers pooled resources to save imperiled animals. One New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection official claimed that this was a problem that would take weeks or months to fix.

Another oil spill occurred in Puget Sound, Washington, on October 14. The latter was presumed to be a deliberate release of oil. According to the Washington Department of Ecology and the Coast Guard, darkness and a thick fog kept them from responding quickly to the spill when it was first reported. By the time response teams had arrived, the spill had contaminated miles of shoreline along Vashon and Maury Islands. A sea bird that came in contact with the oil was rescued while efforts to save a seal pup failed. A NOAA spill model has been used to attempt to find a source for the Puget Sound spill. In addition, samples of fuel oil from ships that were in the area are being taken for chemical analysis and comparison with samples from the beach.

For more information regarding coastal Alaska, Delaware Bay, or Puget Sound, please check out these links.  Links and information for this news article were compiled by John Carriger, an NSF Mid-Atlantic COSEE graduate student.

For the MACOSEE summer 2004 workshop, an activity was developed by MACOSEE partners that uses a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration model and realtime data to track and predict oil spills in Delaware Bay. Workshop participants can find it at http://www.macosee.net/education/curriculum/. For information on this model, please contact newman@vims.edu.

A new buoy has been born! The first in a large planned family of buoys for the Lower Chesapeake Bay just joined our nation’s community of observing systems. Anchored at the mouth of the York River, this brainchild of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) was sponsored by the Virginia Commonwealth and U.S. Coast Guard.

Despite a difficult pregnancy, the buoy is now gathering data that is viewable from a newly developed web site, http://www.vims.edu/realtime/. Video camera imaging of the buoy location will be added soon so users can see conditions on the York River in addition to exploring the near real-time physical and chemical data.

In May 2004, educators, scientists, engineers, and most importantly inner city 6th grade students from Empire Tech School in Cleveland, Ohio participated in a joint "scientific meeting" using video conferencing technology. The conference was a pilot program designed to connect scientists directly with students to enhance science learning. The idea was the brainchild of Mr. Sam Roman, the technology coordinator for Empire Tech. Sam is an active participant in the "Oceans Connecting Education" program offered through MA COSEE. Oceans Connecting Education was designed to pair middle school educators and community college professors in Cleveland, Miami, and Phoenix, Arizona to test new Internet based ocean science lessons that utilize real-time data from coastal observing systems.

Prior to the video conference students completed the "Gone Fishing" unit of COOL Classroom (www.coolclassroom.org). Students came equipped with questions about the gliders used in the New Jersey Coastal Observing System and about the scientists and their careers. The scientists learned about the Tech Fair at Empire Tech and got to see student reports and posters. It was a wonderful experience for all involved!

See the clip of this video conference (Windows Media Player, .wmv format)

First Nobel Peace Prize Ever Awarded for Environmental Accomplishments Goes to .

by Erica Holloman

Unquestionably, the Nobel Prize is the most prestigious of awards. Nobel Prizes have been given yearly since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for peace. For the first time in its long history, the Nobel peace prize will be awarded this year based on extraordinary accomplishments in environmental stewardship. Awarded for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy and peace, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai was selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee as this year's Nobel Peace Laureate. Professor Maathai, who was born in Nyeri, Kenya in 1940, is the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and is now the first African and African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1977, Professor Maathai established The Green Belt Movement (GBM). The GBM is a non-profit organization that focuses on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building in Kenya. One of the main goals of the organization is to repair the destruction of Kenyan forests and to battle soil erosion via mass replanting. According to The Green Belt website, 20 million trees were planted in Kenya by 1997.

As a young African American woman in the field of environmental science, I find the accomplishments of Professor Maathai to be inspirational. To learn more about Professor Maathai's exceptional work or The Green Belt Movement, explore the following web sites:

http://www.greenbeltmovement.org

http://www.nobel.se

Forty-nine countries have agreed to participate in a 10-year project to collect and share thousands of measurements of the Earth, ranging from weather to streamflow to ground tremors to air pollution, Conrad C. Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Tuesday.

"The Earth needs a full-body scan, and that is what we're talking about," Lautenbacher said at a briefing on the project. (More...)

June 2004: "New Report Identifies PreK-12 Programs that Help Underrepresented Groups Succeed in Science and Mathematics"
(Excerpted from the NSTA electronic newsletter) Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST), an initiative of the Council on Competitiveness, has released its final report on effective programs that help underrepresented groups succeed in science and mathematics. The report, "What it Takes: PreK-12 Design Principles to Broaden Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics," showcases nine programs with significant evidence of effectiveness and eleven that warrant further research, based on an in-depth evaluation of research evidence programs by the BEST Blue Ribbon Panel on Pre-K-12 Education and the American Institutes of Research (AIR).

BEST was created to bring together the nation's most respected practitioners, researchers, and policymakers to identify what's working across the country to develop the technical talent of under-represented groups in preK-12, higher education, and the workplace. The BEST Blue Ribbon Panel, chaired by Dr. Shirley Malcom, head director for Education and Human Resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, screened 200 programs and selected 34 for detailed examination. To read the full report, go to http://www.bestworkforce.org/publications.htm.

April 2004: MA COSEE was mentioned in the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy Report
The COOL Classroom (a product of the Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University and the MACOSEE) was mentioned in the recent U.S. Ocean Commission report entitled, “An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century”. The Commission identified COOL Classroom as an example of an “innovative, relevant and exciting educational opportunity...created when the research and education communities work together to bring the latest advances in ocean research into the classroom”.

Mandated by the Oceans Act of 2000, The Ocean Commission was authorized by Congress, and its members appointed by the President. Their task was to hold public meetings and canvas stakeholders including ocean scientists, to deliver a recommended ocean policy. The Commission called for a new national ocean policy that balances use with sustainability, is based on sound science and educational excellence, and moves toward an ecosystem-based management approach. Read more about COSEE and the Ocean Commission

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