COSEE NOW

Date: June 30 to July 1st
Event:National Marine Educators Association 2009 Conference
Location: Pacific Grove, California

At this year’s NMEA conference, COSEE NOW team members presented a number of presentations spanning the range from ocean literacy activities in the K-12 classroom to an extensive review of scientists opinions on education and outreach.  To learn more about each session check out the abstracts below and feel free to contact the presenters directly for more information.

Becoming a Networked Ocean World through the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence
Janice McDonnell, Sage Lichtenwalner, Katie Gardner
In this session, COSEE NOW team members will provide a guided tour of our website and show you how you can become involved in COSEE NOW through Web-based forums, professional development\regional collaborations to enhance ocean science education and increase ocean literacy\and on-line teacher-scientist interactions to enhance scientific and technological content in informal and formal educational settings. We will demonstrate our latest lessons and resources that use real time data from ocean observing systems including the COOL Classroom and informal lessons from the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ.

What Can the Integrated Ocean Observing System Offer Educators?
Amy Sprenger,
Nora Deans, Chris Simoniello, Janice McDonnell, Amy Holt Cline, Craig Risien, Heather Kerkering, Marcie Grabowski
Educators from several of the regional associations of the national Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) will introduce ocean observing systems and give an overview of the role of education and outreach in ocean observing systems. The second half of the session will be a share-a-thon for session attendees, presentations will include: stories from ocean observing systems, ocean observing systems in informal education, curriculum using ocean observing data, and professional development opportunities for bringing ocean observing into the classroom. [Handout]

Ocean Scientists’ Role in Education: A Five-Year Study
Chris Parsons,
Janice McDonnell, Sage Lichtenwalner
Room: Curlew

Since 2004 COSEE-NOW team members have conducted an annual ocean scientists survey to understand scientists’ K-12 education involvement, practices and needs. In keeping with the COSEE goal of supporting the interactions between scientists and educators, this presentation offers a summary of five years of results and highlights differences in responses between current ocean scientists and graduate students, our future scientists. COSEE-NOW (Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence – Networked Ocean World) is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Can’t Take the Heat?
Christopher Petrone,
Vicki P. Clark, Dawn Sherwood
Why does coffee take so long to cool down? Why is ocean water sometimes the warmest when the average daily air temperature starts to drop? How can buoys help us explore these questions? In this session by the Bridge and COSEE-NOW, participants will explore the concept of heat capacity and its effects on our daily lives. We will work through a classroom-tested activity that uses online resources and ocean observing system data to investigate why water acts as a thermal buffer and the practical applications this has. Participants will receive resources and information on integrating observing systems into their curricula.  [Handout | PowerPoint]

Coral Bleaching, A White Hot Problem — A Bridge DATA Activity
Lisa Lawrence,
Chris Petrone
Some of the planet’s most beautiful and diverse ecosystems are at risk. With temperatures on the rise, coral reefs are at greater risk for coral bleaching. Using ocean observing system data from NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center, this classroom activity examines ocean temperatures off Puerto Rico to see how coral reefs are being impacted and predict what’s on the horizon. Brought to you by Sea Grant’s Bridge website (www.marine-ed.org/bridge) and COSEE Networked Ocean World (COSEE NOW).