1. The COOL Classroom is a series of online instructional modules for middle and high school students and teachers. It utilizes data from the Rutgers-IMCS Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory, a place where ocean scientists from various disciplines study the coastal ocean collaboratively. We are looking for help developing:

• Career Information – materials that highlight potential careers in marine science
• Web-based Discussion Area - Collaboration tools that enable classrooms to communicate with scientists and each other.
• Background Materials and Advanced Activities - Activities that provide background understanding, context, and basic understanding of important concepts.
• Audiovisual materials that can be accessed by teachers and included in their classroom activities.
• New Lesson Plans Several new units or modules are in development for the projects based on current research at partner institutions as it relates to the coastal observing systems
• Community Outreach Activities - Several new activities that focus on community outreach will be developed and integrated into specific lessons. These will also act as authentic assessment activities as they will typically ask students to develop a presentation or newsletter (either of which could be published online) to communicate what they have learned to their local community.
• Teacher Support DVD - A Teacher Support DVD will contain detailed support materials for the teacher as well as video clips of master teachers using it in their classroom.

2. The Gulf Stream Voyage is an online multidisciplinary project that utilizes both real time data and primary source materials to help guide students to discover the science and history of the Gulf Stream. Students investigate the driving forces behind this great ocean current, how it affects the Atlantic Ocean and some of humankind's experiences dealing with it. This voyage includes activities for marine science, earth science, chemistry, physics, biology, math, history, and language arts. The activities are presented in a modular fashion, so that each lesson in the complete unit may be used individually to supplement traditional classroom lessons. Most importantly, this project has students’ access real time ocean data, atmospheric data and historical primary source materials and analyzes them in the context of an authentic real world problem.

Pulse People:
Mike Newman

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