Other Outreach and Community Service Activities

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  Dr. Stacy Smith volunteered and participated in the annual Delaware Bay Horseshoe Crab Spawning Survey, conducted by the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve. Overharvesting of horseshoe crabs depleted the population, but spawning surveys from recent years show their numbers are rebounding.
  
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  DSU faculty, staff and students participated in Coast Day held in October, 2006 at the University of Delaware’s Lewes Campus. A booth and displays were maintained showcasing fisheries research and educational activities at DSU. Over 1500 individuals visited the DSU booth during this one day event. A number of education exercises were developed to interact with K-12 individuals.
  
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  DSU faculty and staff participated in the East Coast Commercial Fisherman and Aquaculture Expo held in Ocean City, MD during January, 2007. A booth and displays were maintained showcasing fisheries research and education activities at DSU.
  

On September 13, 2009, Todd Christenson and students, Daniel Cullen, Jhamyllia Rice, Vincent Dominique, Nick Clemons, Mary Phipps-Dickerson, Brandon Smith and Joanna Donaldson (UMES) participated in Coast Day, an annual outreach event designed to increase awareness of coastal resources. The group spent the morning cleaning the Assateague Island beach and discussed LMRCSC research with the public at the Center’s booth in the afternoon. There were about 100 participants.

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  Pictures of 15 specimens from the UMES biological collection were selected for inclusion in FISHBASE, a catalog of fish species which is accessible worldwide. The list can be found at http://www.fishbase.us/Photos/MissingPhotosSearchList.cfm?Country=840&Gr.
  
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  Dr. Andrea Johnson (UMES) organized and instructed a 3-hour course on fish life history to 25 students and science teachers, Tracey Riley and Matthew Elburn from the Snow Hill High School Summer Learning Academy on July 3, 2008 at UMES’ Paul S. Sarbanes Coastal Ecology Laboratory. Assisting with this session were LMRCSC student, Belita Nguluwe and Program Manager, Todd Christenson.
  
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  Dr. Joseph Love and LMRCSC Master’s students, Josh Newhard, Daniel Luers, Reginald Black and Ryan Corbin instructed 30 students from the Maryland Summer Center for Gifted and Talented Students in lessons on the identification, recruitment and diets of fish in the coastal bays on July 7, 2008.
  
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  Reginald Black (M.S. Student, UMES) organized a Campus and Community Cleanup on Earth Day (April 26, 2008). He and other members of the AFS UMES Student Subunit (Tedra Booker, Josh Newhard, Nicholas Clemons) and Dr. Joseph Love participated along with three other UMES students.
  
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  Dr. Eric May (UMES) testified as an expert witness before the Senate Committee for Environment and Public Works on May 11, 2010 during a hearing entitled “Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Recent Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico” regarding the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico. The hearing was chaired by Senators Benjamin Cardin and Barbara Boxer. Dr. May was also interviewed about this subject on May 16, 2010 by Dr. Lori Kirschner for her syndicated radio show Animals Today. A digital file of the interview is available at http://www.animalstodayradio.com/shows/listen.html
  
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  Dr. P. Chigbu coordinated the NSF REU program at UMES during summer 2010. Nine (9) students recruited from various universities gained research experience in marine and estuarine science. The program ended with a symposium at the PSSCEC, Assateague Island, MD.
  
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  Todd Christenson staffed the LMRCSC booth at the Beyond the Boardwalk event in order to promote LMRCSC’s research and education activities. This family oriented ocean awareness event sponsored by the National Aquarium in Baltimore was held on June 29, 2007 in Ocean City, Maryland. Representatives of the NPS and MD DNR also participated. As a direct result of this event, Ashley Smith (Hampton University) was recruited for the August, 2007 research cruise aboard the Albatross IV.
  

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  COMB PhD student Kate Gillespie provided SAT preparation for inner city high school students through ABAE (A bridge to Academic Excellence) http://www2.pharmacy.umaryland.edu/studentorg/abae/) on the following Saturdays: January 26, February 9, February 16, February 23 and March 1, 2008. Ms. Gillespie also gave a presentation entitled “Life in a real lab” at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (BBCC harbor campus) based on her experiences in the Biotechnology/ Biopharmaceutical Industry on January 7, 2008. She also served as Peer Mentor in PROMISE program during Fall 2008-Spring 2009.
  
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  COMB faculty, postdocs and students participated in the UMBI SciTech Program. SciTech was designed to provide teachers and students in grades 6 through 12 a unique hands-on experience in the field of marine science and biotechnology. COMB/UMBI's SciTech Program provided hands-on training to middle and high school students at the Columbus Center. Lab sessions were in bioremediation, plankton and the ecosystem, biofilms/biodiversity, oyster biology and zebrafish development. All of the SciTech Programs are aligned with MDSE learning outcomes and high school core learning goals. SciTech also sponsored a number of workshops and internships for teachers during the summer. The Program was a partnership between COMB/UMBI and Maryland Sea Grant Extension Program (http://www.umbi.umd.edu/~scitech), and was designed to address the well-documented need for better science education. The program made science more accessible, exciting and relevant for teachers and students by offering hands-on programming that was based on current-day research in a real laboratory setting within COMB.
  
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  LMRCSC student Ammar Hanif (M.S., COMB) volunteered in teaching practical microbiology and molecular biology tools to 7^th-9^th grade students at the Baltimore Islamic Community School; and was also a volunteer instructor in UMBI SciTech module: Marine Natural Products Laboratory.
  

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  Dr. Rose Jagus participated in the Chesapeake Bay Trust Workshop on increasing minority participation in environmental issues in January 2008. She also participated in the University System of Maryland Conference: "Importance of closing the achievement gap: State and Institutional Considerations" on November 14, 2007. Dr. Jagus has also coordinated a 10-week summer internship program at UMBI-COMB since 2007. In addition to orientation and safety training, special seminars, and workshops, the students participated in inquiry based research projects. Details of LMRCSC opportunities at UMBI-COMB can be found at: http://www.umbi.umd.edu/comb/lmrcsc/index.php. Recruitment presentations were given by Dr. Rose Jagus to Hampton University students visiting UMBI-COMB and to Cheyney University Aquaculture students. Dr. Jagus also interviewed applicants for the LMRCSC-COMB summer internship program at the Sixteenth Annual Mid-Atlantic HBCU Science Research Day at UMES, April 2008.
  

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  LMRCSC faculty provided 24 tours of COMB’s recirculating aquaculture facility to various groups including Sherwood High School, National Public Radio, Hood College, Living Classrooms, Discovery Channel and others.
  
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  Dr. Eric Schott volunteered with 2^nd-4^th grade students at a Roland Park, Elementary School #233 in Baltimore. He supplied blue crabs and presented crab behavior and environmental challenges for crabs.
  

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  LMRCSC faculty at SSU perform community outreach at local public and private schools with which they have developed relationships. For example, Dr. Carol Pride has developed a regular program with Thunderbolt Elementary School. Dr. Carla Curran visited the classes of her teacher interns. Dr. Hoskins worked closely with A. E. Beach High School and the Savannah Chatham County Public Schools Science Coordinator, Horace Magwood.
  
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  SSU leveraged the infrastructure of the LMRCSC to host the Georgia-South Carolina Regional Competition of the National Ocean Science Bowl. Drs. Hoskins and Ogburn were co-regional coordinators and produced the bowl with a $14,000 subsidy from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. The competition was held at SSU on March 6, 2010. Additionally, Dr. Hoskins helped to engage the public’s awareness of environmental issues by serving as a moderator in an October forum the Georgia Conservancy sponsored in which candidates for the county commission addressed the public. Dr. Carla Curran presented one of her education modules at the National Marine Educators Association meeting in fall 2008.
  
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    The NOAA Preserve America program selected the project “The Historical Role of African-Americans in the Coastal Economy of Georgia” as one of the 10 projects funded nationally. This program led by Dr. Hoskins involved 4 high school students in collecting oral histories and fishery socioeconomic data from African American families.
    

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  Several LMRCSC students (Carissa Wilkerson, Chris Burrell, and Robyn Day) served as mentors in the Mentoring Young Scientists Program at Hampton University. This program was funded by COSEE-Coastal Trends, and it served to provide middle school students with the research and educational training on current coastal trend topics. The culminating event was Coastal Trends Weekend (April 4-5, 2009) where the students presented their topics on the floor of the VA aquarium to the general public.
  
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  HU’s LMRCSC and Marine Science Club students organized the Teen Environmental Conference for Middle, High and HU College students in the City of Hampton. This event was leveraged by Dr. Gibson’s NSF COSIA grant in Partnership with the VA Aquarium. The results of this event were presented at the AFS meeting in Seattle, WA on September 4-8, 2011.
  

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  Newsletter: The Center published several issues of the newsletter, The Living Sea, to highlight Center research and educational activities. The newsletter enhances the awareness of the LMRCSC locally and nationally. All issues of the newsletter are available for download in PDF format from the Center’s web site (http://www.umes.edu/lmrcsc).
  
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  Website: A redesigned LMRCSC web site (www.umes.edu/lmrcsc) was completed and launched on October 28, 2008. The new site is more user-friendly, more efficient in its layout, and scalable to accommodate new needs and functions as they arise. Another major redesign of the web site intended to make it more comprehensive and centralized was completed in December 2011. The new site highlights Center accomplishments andmaking them more accessible to the user, and includes information on faculty and students at all partners. Each of the LMRCSC partner institutions also has its own website that is directly linked to the LMRCSC main web page. The web sites for the respective institutions are: DSU (http://cars.desu.edu/aqua-sci/index.htm); SSU (http://www.ssufisheries.com/); HU (http://www.hamptonu.edu/academics/schools/science/marine/); UMCES-IMET (http://www.umces.edu/imet) and RSMAS (http://cufer.rsmas.miami.edu/index.php?page_id=31).
  
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  Facebook: LMRCSC Technical Monitor Jeanine Cody created an LMRCSC page on Facebook which went live on July 20, 2009. It provides students and others a forum to network and discuss marine and fisheries issues, funding and job opportunities, current events in marine science, etc. Two hundred and forty-eight (248) individuals, including many students, have signed up as ‘fans’ of the site.
  
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  Three photos featuring LMRCSC students and faculty were used in the NOAA Fisheries Report “The shortage in the number of individuals with Post-Baccaulareate degrees in subjects related to fishery science” submitted to Congress in August, 2008.
  

Research Associates and faculty conducted research funded by LMRCSC through the TAB which involved both graduate and undergraduate students as active research participants. During the academic year, students participated in research projects at their home institutions. In the summer, some of the students continued to work on research at their home institutions. Others interned at NOAA labs, or in labs at other LMRCSC or non-LMRCSC institutions.

NOAA Research Cruise:

UMES undergraduates, Nathan McWilliams and Claudia Harvey participated in a fisheries survey of the Hudson Canyon from March 6 – 12, 2007 aboard the Delaware II under the direction of Dr. Vince Guida of NOAA’s Sandy Hook lab. UMES Master’s student Jacklyn James joined Dr. Guida, who served on her graduate committee, aboard the R/V Ronald H. Brown to study the Hudson Canyon habitat as part of her thesis research from August 8 – 20, 2007. Lastly, LMRCSC conducted a joint cruise with NOAA aboard the Albatross IV in parallel with the new fisheries vessel, the R/V Bigelow.

LMRCSC conducted its seventh consecutive annual winter cruise from January 10-21, 2011 aboard the R/V Delaware II. Dr. Vince Guida from the NOAA J.J. Howard Marine Science Lab served as Chief Scientist. LMRCSC DRS Dr. Brad Stevens and DSU Project Director Dr. Stacy Smith served as watch chiefs.