While some teachers and students slept in and basked in the sun
on beaches this summer, high school teacher Amy Brown was studying
marine biology aboard a ship in the Channel Islands.
The two-week trip allowed Brown to keep current in marine
biology and teach from more than just a textbook.
While some teachers and students slept in and basked in the sun on beaches this summer, high school teacher Amy Brown was studying marine biology aboard a ship in the Channel Islands.
The two-week trip allowed Brown to keep current in marine biology and teach from more than just a textbook.
“It’s a way to bring science into the classroom,” said Brown, who teaches biology and human biology at San Benito High School. “We can see what science is doing out there. The idea is to let teachers bring in the experience of research into their classrooms by conducting the research themselves.”
The experience was part of the Teacher at Sea program sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in partnership with the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Brown departed from Port Hueneme in Oxnard, Calif., to very strict security. Brown said she was not expecting such high levels of security, but acknowledged the concern since the Sept. 11 attacks. The 224-foot McArthur II, or Big Mac, sailed in the Pacific around San Miguel, Calif.
Even though teachers benefit from the program, so do scientists as well as the science fields.
“Scientists gain motivated volunteers to help carry out their projects,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Web site. “The program serves NOAA’s mission by promoting among teachers and their students a greater awareness of the need to understand and protect the world’s oceans and their resources.”
Because research on such a vessel is so expensive, research took place 24 hours a day, Brown said. The sanctuary is a 1,252-square-nautical-mile portion of the Santa Barbara Channel and encompasses the waters that surround Anacapa, Santa Cruz, San Miguel and Santa Barbara Islands, according to the sanctuary’s Web site. Brown joined an elementary teacher along with geophysicists, geologists, biologists and marine biologists. The trip lasted from July 9 to 24.
“It was nice to see geologists working with biologists,” Brown said. “They’re related, but are considered separate organizations.”
During the first part of the voyage, Brown and other scientists used side-scan sonar and bottom towing to characterize the ocean bottom. The second part included sediment sampling to get a better idea of the environmental stresses to which the marine organisms are exposed. The object was to figure out the layout of the ocean and then figure out which organisms lived where. Among the organisms the team focused on was rockfish because of the group’s declining numbers.
“The big question they’re trying to answer is, where are the rockfish and how much of their habit do they have in the (Channel Islands) sanctuary,” Brown said. “It will help them figure out how to regulate fishing. They want to sustain the population. A lot of people are required to answer a question like that. It’s good to go back and see that there are so many questions unanswered.”
Rockfish are one of the most important of California market fishes. They are any of various fishes living among rocks.
Part of the program’s requirements include outlining how the teacher plans to use the experience in their classroom. Brown has until the end of the year to submit the lesson plan. She said she will use the research during the ecology unit in her biology class in the spring. The lesson plan is posted on the NOAA Web site for other teachers to use.
Brown also kept daily logs detailing the mission and highlights for each day.
Even though she couldn’t wait to take a shower in her own bathroom and sleep in her own bed, Brown said she would “do it again.”
“It was a good experience. It gave me a chance to review the scientific method and remember that science is a process – you don’t complete projects in an hour and 40 minutes like we do in class sometimes,” she said.
This summer, Brown plans on applying to participate in research with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
“We have such a professional group here (in the science department),” she said. “Most of them stay connected (to their fields). I’m just trying to keep up with everybody.”
For more information on the Teacher at Sea program, visit www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/ or www.noaa.org.
