Penn State's CSATS engaging students in oceanography study
December 7, 2006
University Park, Pa. -- Middle school and high school students will gain a better understanding of local and deep-sea environments and the process of science as part of a new collaboration that includes the Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS).
Under a four-year, $882,352 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), CSATS is partnering with two other entities, Ridge 2000 and the GLOBE Program, to enlist students in meaningful research of the Earth's biggest ecosystem -- the deep ocean.
Titled FLEXE (From Local to EXtreme Environments), the project runs from Aug. 1, 2006 to July 31, 2010. The work will raise student awareness of oceanographic phenomena such as mid-ocean ridge spreading centers and cold seeps, geologic processes, plate tectonics, hydrology, sea water chemistry, and biological communities that uniquely do not rely on the sun's energy.
FLEXE students will investigate their local environments through hands-on investigations and will explore the deep ocean through comparative studies. Using audio, video, and text-based communications, they will interact with an international network of deep-ocean scientists from their laboratories, aboard ships, and during dives to geologically and biologically unique environments. As with other GLOBE projects, students will make scientifically valid measurements of local temperature, water quality, and other environmental parameters and contribute their data to an existing database of over 15 million measurements.
A unique aspect of the FLEXE project will be its emphasis on students' use of peer review to evaluate each others' scientific writing. Participating science classes will be paired with classes elsewhere in the world and students will use Web-based tools to critique each other's arguments, learn about other environments, and experience some of the social structures of organized science. Through the FLEXE Forum, an online communications system, students will respond to questions about their studies posed by oceanographers in the Ridge 2000 initiative. Ridge 2000 is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored network of oceanographers studying mid-ocean ridges and other tectonic spreading centers.
"As one of NSF's four new Integrated Earth Systems Science Projects, FLEXE will develop and evaluate new strategies to emphasize students' educational experiences in the GLOBE Program," said Bill Carlsen, CSATS director and a co-investigator of the FLEXE initiative. "It also brings to GLOBE its first serious investigations of our planet's oceans.
"By focusing on students' experiences with science and giving students you-are-there insights into research and shipboard life, we hope to challenge the common stereotype of scientists as sedentary male loners," continued Carlsen. "Adolescents are fascinated by extremes, and environments don't get much more extreme than deep ocean vent communities, where life abounds despite the absence of sunlight, crushing pressure, and temperatures that can change hundreds of degrees in a few centimeters."
Liz Goehring, education outreach coordinator for the Ridge 2000 program and researcher in Penn State's Eberly College of Science, is the project's principal investigator. Among the other seven co-investigators are Catherine Williams and Charles Fisher, both of the Eberly College.
Contact
Suzanne Wayne
jxs59@psu.edu
814-863-1192
Joe Savrock
jts14@psu.edu
814-865-1005