Now accepting applications of interest for the 2010 EARTH workshop to be held in Beaverton, Oregon starting in the evening of July 11th, 2010 and ending in the early afternoon on July 16th, 2010. If you are interested in attending, please contact George Matsumoto (mageATmbari.org) to find out more details. The focus of the 2010 workshop will be on observatory science, especially the datasets from MBARI and from the Center for Margin Observations and Predictions (C-MOP; http://www.stccmop.org/). C-MOP is the host for this workshop.
Recognizing the need to educate the public about the value of research and help them understand scientific methodology, this MBARI/Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) collaboration allows us to test new ideas for public outreach and education. One of MBARI’s joint projects with MBA, Education and Research: Testing Hypotheses (EARTH) lays new groundwork, providing teachers with means for integrating real-time data with existing educational standards and tested curriculum in an interactive and engaging way.
EARTH uses near-real-time data from ocean observatories to design and test outreach with the Internet as an interface to scientists, teachers, students, and the public. Several workshops were held at MBARI in 2002-2005 bringing educators, scientists, and engineers together to develop effective educational practices for access and use of near-real-time data in preparation for the future deployment of benthic observatories (in particular, the Monterey Accelerated Research System, MARS). The 2006 workshop was held in conjunction with Rutgers University and the Mid-Atlantic COSEE. The location was at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. The 2007 workshops were in Monterey (June) and in New Hampshire (July). Information about the New Hampshire workshop can be found at http://www.cooa.unh.edu/workshop2007.jsp and information about the Monterey workshop can be found at http://www.mbayaq.org/lc/teachers_place/edu_program_cycles.asp. We moved up the coast to Oregon for the 2008 workshop with sponsorship and leadership from the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) and from NASA and their Astrobiology Program. The 2009 workshop returns to Monterey and will take place the week before the National Marine Educators Association meeting which is also in Monterey. Plans for the 2010 workshop are being finalized. We will be heading back up to Oregon and working with the Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction (C-MOP) in Beaverton, Orgeon.
Participants include educators from other research institutions, universities, community colleges, and high schools as well as MBARI and MBA staff. Initial efforts of EARTH target high school and undergraduate students, with the ultimate goal of reaching kindergarten through college. This effort will enhance online education material on the ocean and resources for teachers already available on MBARI’s Web site and the Aquarium’s ‘E-quarium’ Web site and ‘Learning Center’.
Background information on earlier EARTH workshops are provided on this website as well as links to activities developed as part of the previous workshops. If you are interested in using any of these activities in your classroom, please take the time to fill out the assessment rubric and return it to George Matsumoto. Any comments or thoughts regarding these activities are welcome. Please be aware that some of these activities have NOT been tested in the classroom yet and some of them are still under development (e.g. Photographic Identification). We will be updating these pages throughout the year, so please check back if you are interested.
A comprehensive literature review of potential approaches and effective educational practices for the development of a national ocean observing education product has been generated as part of the results from the 2005 EARTH workshop and is available here as a pdf file.
We will continue to update this website.
Full-hemisphere views of the Earth from GOES (Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites).
GOES satellites are built by NASA and operated by NOAA.
EARTH logo designed by Jennifer Trask, 2003