NOAA OE Teachers Workshop

Aloha Everyone,

    This past weekend the Community Education Program hosted our 10^th annual NOAA OE Teachers Workshop here at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. We had 16 visiting educators join us Saturday October 13, in the Makers Lab.

     Kicking us off with on mysterious depths of the ocean, Mark Heckman explained "why we explore" and the significance of methane hydrates. He guided us through “Exploring the Deep Ocean with NOAA”with a hands-on module where teachers create methane hydrate models with toothpicks and candy. Pictured is the a activity of the successfully created models!

     

      CEP Educator Andrew Osberg guided teachers  through “Invent a Robot."  ROVs are essential in deep ocean exploration for gathering high quality imagery and samples.  Teams were able to build their engineering design skills and by fashioning innovative ROV arms that could successfully pick up a cup of water, using only scratch cardboard pieces.  These teams also compared the efficiency between hydraulic and pneumatic systems.
     We also had the privilege of having guest lecturer Joyce Miller, the 'Queen of Multi-beam' unravel her work with multi-beam technology from several research vessels.

Image from:
https://schmidtocean.org/cruise-log-post/a-lifetime-underwater/

     





     The group wrapped up with water column investigations on the Oceanographic Yo-Yos which introduced teachers to the CTD module. A CTD is water column exploration technology that includes a package of electronic devices that measure conductivity, temperature, depth and collect water samples. With simple tools like pH strips, thermometers and vinegar, students are able to recreate open ocean research in a classroom.

     There are many more lesson plans and our educators got to go home with the educator goodie bags! Join the Oceania for opportunities such as this. We hope to see you next time!

https://www.oceaniateachers.org/

Mahalo,

Kyla