Floats in the UW lab

The 2024 workshop was held June 24-28 in Seattle, WA, and was co-hosted by the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC), a project funded by the US National Science Foundation to build and deploy a global network of chemical and biological sensors that will monitor ocean health. This new network of floats will collect data on the chemistry and the biology of the ocean from the surface to a depth of 2,000 meters, and will allow scientists to pursue fundamental questions concerning ocean ecosystems, observe ocean health and productivity, and monitor the elemental cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the ocean through all seasons of the year.

During this workshop, educators worked with active researchers to explore current science and/or engineering research, data, and conclusions. The educators were given time to develop their own curricula using the knowledge from these explorations and their own experiences to create classroom lessons tied to the abilities of their own students as well as current education standards and pedagogy. The teachers also developed connections with each other and with the researchers that assisted them in expanding their classroom reach across the country.

Why Attend the EARTH Workshop?

Teachers involved in this EARTH workshop will:

  • Cultivate relationships with local researchers and like-minded educators that can lead to future collaborations
  • Explore available resources from supporting organizations and programs, such as GO-BGC and MBARI, and develop institutional connections that can aid in future lessons
  • Receive a Certificate of Participation that provides evidence of 40 hours of professional development that can be used toward continuing education or certificate renewal
  • Develop new curriculum resources that use real science and authentic data to teach science content and process and address their needs and the needs of their students

Applications are now closed for the 2024 workshop. All application materials as outlined on the application page needed to be completed and submitted by February 12, 2024 at 0800 PST for consideration for the 2024 workshop.

Date

June 24 - 28, 2024

Location

University of Washington
Seattle, WA

Co-Host

Lesson Plans

Venus Fly Trap Anemone

Guess the Ocean Animal

Play a classic guessing game with unique ocean animals, then identify animals in photo data from dives via a mobile game or online database. Students

Three LEGO floats

LEGO Build a Float!

Students walkthrough components of a float, looking at the process the float goes through to be ready to go out to sea. They create LEGO models of their float.

Satellite map at a concert

Taylor on Tour

Using chlorophyll a data from vertical profiling floats to understand and predict the distribution of Pacific albacore tuna. Tuna are migratory apex predators, as well

In addition to the lessons above, the following lessons were developed and presented at the workshop and are available on the EARTH Google Drive:

Lesson Plan & Resources Authors
Float Like a Robot, Design Like an Engineer Sinéad & Lauren
Ocean pH values: Past, Present, and Future Mary
pH in the Ocean Clarita & Liz
Hypothesizing Ocean Patterns Maddy, Jacque, & Alissa
Drift Into Data & Under Pressure Carly
Ocean Connections: Phytoplankton & Food Web  Timna & Marissa
Slide presentation with video Janine
EARTH 2024 participants
EARTH 2024 participants at the UW Float Lab

Schedule

Presenters

George Matsumoto

MBARI

Coming soon…

Emma Riley stands in front of a seaplane

Emma Riley

2024 MBARI Intern

Kayleigh Jones, incoming grad student 2021

Kayleigh Jones

Grad student (SIO), 2024 MBARI intern

Sasha Seroy

Sasha Seroy

Assistant Teaching Professor – Biological Oceanography

Jonathan Sharp
Mary Margaret Stoll

Mary Margaret Stoll

Grad student, UW

Presentation Slides

Athena Barrios

Athena Barrios

Digital Learning Manager, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Issie Corvi

Ocean Vision AI Program Manager – MBARI