Posted by K. Bylsma 08/05/13

 

 

Ahoy,  from K.Bylsma, Teacher at Sea, C-IMAGE voyage.

Departure time was delayed from St. Petersburg as we have taken on equipment that will supply the crew that immediately follows our outing ( for the next two months).  They will be core sampling the sediments and more macro level studies.

Did you know?? The Weatherbird II costs $10,000 PER DAY to operate – crew and equipment. That’s a lot of grant money ! ( I’ve interviewed a couple of scientists who can vouch for that)

Why are we here and what are we going to be doing?

Under the leadership of C-IMAGE Scientist, Dr. Kendra Daly (http://www.marine.usf.edu/zooplankton/) C-IMAGE continues its offshore surveys of the Gulf of Mexico following the Deep Horizon Well

Before we talk about the actual tests being conducted, I wanted to share some of the resources I located for teachers to use in the classroom. Why is the Gulf of Mexico important?

Teachers:

* Some of the notable resources that I used in background building were , NOAA, National Geographic, Smithsonian  and coolclassroom.com ( role playing games for environmental situations).

Discussing the topography of the Gulf, chemical properties of the stations of water

* another resource for background that I located was Gulf of Mexico Offshore Oasis, a 35 page resource from the U.S Department of the Interior.

* Then, I collected a list of misconceptions that students have about the oceans , 110 Misconceptions about the Ocean “ by Robert Feller , Oceanography magazine, December 2007. (great for all ages)

Students:

We’re on our way and headed to our first testing site in the Gulf of Mexico. We’ve spent the time labeling H20 containers for testing ahead of time. Over the course of 8 days, we will have collected data from 11 different sites around the Gulf of Mexico (each voyage, though, has a different set of data collections sites compared to the Deep Water Horizon, or DWH site). Next, we’ll introduce you to the crew and our activities. It’s 3:25 pm on August 5, 2013. Out.