With the launch of NOAA’s ship Okeanos Explorer, marine education and exploration enters a new era.  This week NOAA hosts an Education Forum to develop plans for educational use of the new ship.  COSEE representation at this important forum include eleven current or former COSEE members.  OLC’s own Phil Bell is giving a presentation titled ‘How People Learn with New Technologies and OImplications for the Okeanos Explorer Education Program”.  Read more about the Okeanos Explorer.

Rick Keil, one of the COSEE-OLC researchers, has been evaluating how materials are transferred from urban homes to the sea.  Usually the compounds of interest are fun and safe (cooking spices).  However, last fall he teamed with esteemed researcher Anne Steinemann to evaluate the ‘nasties’ and their flow to the ocean.  Anne has just published a new work (conducted before she and Rick began teaming up) focussing on emerging pollutants found in households.  Anne, professor of civil and environmental engineering and public affairs, analyzed three air fresheners – a solid deodorizer disk, a liquid spray, and a plug-in oil – and three laundry products – a dryer sheet, fabric softener, and a detergent to determine if there were any regulated but unlableled compounds in the household materials.  [Read more →]

COSEE-OLC is launching an initiative to add COSEE information to the Wikipedia.   Until the start of this initiative, there was no information in the World’s largest Encyclopedia about COSEE, its missions, or the themes of ocean education.  You can help.  [Read more →]

The ocean acidification research bill passed the U.S. House yesterday. H.R. 4174, a top priority for oceans advocates, would create a new program to research and monitor the effects of ocean acidification on the marine environment. The House approved it by voice vote. 

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Thanks to the many people who attended our recent ‘Night with a Polar Scientist” event at the Seattle Aquarium.   Christopher’s talk was certainly polarizing…  Learn more about his research.

On June 26, 2008, COSEE-OLC researchers Carrie Tzou, Giovanna Scalone, and Philip Bell presented findings from a cross-setting ethnographic study of how youth learn about the environment and ocean science at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The poster, entitled “Developing a sense of place: Privilege, class and positioning in formal and informal environmental learning,” described the connection between how places get culturally constructed for and by youth and possible learning pathways available to youth. The presentation was part of a larger poster session focused on learning pathways to developing expertise in a variety of domains, including making financial decisions and videogaming. Tzou, Scalone, and Bell are from the University of Washington’s College of Education.

COSEE-Ocean Learning Communities and the Seattle Aquarium invite you to attend our upcoming mid season event, “An Evening With a Polar Scientist” on Tuesday June 24th, from 6:30-9:00pm at the Seattle Aquarium. The evening event includes a presentation by Dr. Christopher Krembs, a biological oceanographer with the Polar Science Center of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. Dr. Krembs studies the microbial mechanisms that alter the sea ice environment influencing nutrients in the ocean due to climate change and ice retreat. His presentation is followed by a question and answer period. For more information contact Susan Bullerdick at susan@aquariumsociety.org or 206.838.3916

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