Session Descriptions--nmea 2016 Sessions are listed alphabetically by primary presenter’s last name. Allen

jjambeck@engr.uga.edu

Marine debris, especially plastic, continues to be an important environmental contamination issue, with implications for freshwater and soils as well as oceans and wildlife. Individual animals ingest and become entangled in plastic, and microplastic is ubiquitous and persistent in the environment. The Marine Debris Tracker mobile app and citizen science program allow for the collection of global standardized data at a scale, speed, and efficiency that wasn't previously possible. It also increases awareness and education about this issue wherever it is used. It has been used in classrooms, by students, and in informal educational settings. To date, individuals all over the world have helped to clean-up over 910,000 items creating 97,500 data entry points – by simply hitting a few buttons on their mobile phone to tell us what they found. User metrics provide a ranking and our largest group user is the Georgia Sea Turtle Center protecting and caring for Sea Turtles on Jekyll Island, GA and our largest individual user is in Omaha, NE (not far from the Missouri River) where he has collected over 82,000 pieces of litter alone, over the past 4.5 years. We also have a group of schools with Earth Team using the app in California. We, along with our app users, have fostered an online community through social networks – everyone is supportive of each other’s efforts and individuals know that they are a part of a large global effort. There is now enough (opportunistic) data in the database to start to examine characteristics and trends based upon the spatial and temporal data provided by our extremely dedicated users.

darla.kane12@ncf.edu

Cyphoma gibbosum is a gregarious gastropod that carries the Aspergillus sydowwi fungus, leaving it in the feces as it lays down a mucus trail from gorgonian to gorgonian. This gastropod vectors the fungus that affects the sea fan, both carrying the fungus and removing it at the same time, allowing the fan to survive for future feeding. Instead of a predator/ prey relationship, it has morphed into a mutualistic relationship with each needing the other. The gastropod uses the fungus removed for predatory defense and the fan gets the fungus removed, preventing it from overtaking the fan.

karavan@njaes.rutgers.edu

Connecting youth to nature through outdoor experiential learning is a hallmark of 4-H programs. SEA-SI is a summer enrichment program designed to encourage youth entering 5th - 8th grade to become authentic stewards of the Oranokin Creek. The program introduces Cumberland County youth to the environmental Disneyland in their own county. For many young people, 4-H is the first point of association with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Middle school years are a critical window of opportunity during which future aspirations for higher education should be fostered. Utilizing research based curriculum from Rutgers and other sources, SEA-SI addresses Ocean literacy principles, encourages environmental stewardship, explores marine technologies and their application to 21st Century learning skills, and offers kids an opportunity to experience first hand the state of marine life and habitats within their own county. Throughout the program, educators emphasize leadership and life skills, engaging youth in presenting their thoughts and findings, working collaboratively and encouraging understanding of the coastline as an environmental resource. Offered for three days in August, the program is three hours each day. SEA-SI is designed to include no more than 12 students. Demonstrations and activities relating to underwater ROVs, aquaculture systems, geocaching, water quality and habitat assessment were offered. Critical thinking and creative writing exercises were also included. Armed with jewelers loupes, participants first examined preserved marine life, and shells, rendering the isolated view in pen and ink sketches and developing analogies for the specimens they selected. Live marine species collection and identification, as well as water quality assessments, followed. Youth explored local aquaculture efforts, designed ROV frames and piloted underwater ROVS in the creek, and learned handlining and boating safety practices. Discover new ways to incorporate technology in your outdoor education programs through geocaching and marine robotics. Assess different marine robotics platforms for suitability in your outdoor programs. Magnify minds by incorporating The Private Eye Curriculum in your environmental education programs. Learn how to use specimens from nature, a jeweler's loupe, and simple questions to discover new worlds and accelerate science, writing, art, and environmental stewardship

Microplastics, plastic marine debris less than 5mm, impact oceans worldwide and are largely preventable through human behaviors. This middle school curriculum aims to inspire the reduction of microplastics in the ocean through the empowerment of students, teachers, and their communities. Current research in microplastics and personal stories of the researchers have been integrated into an engaging, hands-on curriculum. The curriculum includes three lessons based on Ocean Literacy Principles, NGSS, and teaching best practices. The lessons engage students in thinking through the sources and impacts of microplastics as well as possible solutions. The curriculum has been evaluated using Stufflebeam’s CIPP model. The evaluation includes pre/post surveys of students and teachers to assess the extent to which attitudes and beliefs about microplastics change as well as how understanding and behaviors change after participating in the microplastics curriculum. Student work analysis is also included to understand any changes in knowledge. The final curriculum will be widely disseminated free of charge to networks of teachers locally and nationally with the goal of inspiring change through effective scientific curriculum on the issue of microplastics. The goal of this session is to introduce participants to the microplastics curriculum that will be available online. Participants will learn the objectives of the curriculum and be introduced to its development and evaluation. The methods and final results of the curriculum evaluation will also be shared. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to engage in one of the hands-on activities developed for the curriculum. The activity challenges participants to identify personal care products containing plastic microbeads from a variety of products. Participants make observations of multiple soaps, then add water and observe the changes. These observations help to form conclusions about where microbeads are found and how they might behave in a marine environment. The session will foster awareness of the issue of microplastics as well as providing resources for educating people about the issue and methods for evaluating curriculum.

KrascoC@si.edu, @SmithsonianSMS

Summer camps can springboard student interest in marine science and other STEM fields through hands-on experiential learning. Education staff with the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, FL and Florida Institute of Technology’s Vero Beach Marine Laboratory in Vero Beach, FL will share their experiences with engaging teen audiences in hands-on marine science research activities including DNA sampling, seagrass surveys, constructing ROVs, and utilizing PIT tag technology to track marine organisms. With these lesson plans, we can encourage and promote career opportunities in marine conservation.

jlehnhard@mbayaq.org, @joeyelle

Monterey Bay Aquarium educators will present a new, free Kelp Forest ecosystem game designed for 3rd-5th grade students. The game allows students to build their own kelp forest exhibit as they learn about the needs of kelp, how to keep kelp alive, and the animals that survive in this amazing ecosystem. The 33-level curriculum flow is based on the 3rd- through 5th-grade Systems and System Models NGSS Crosscutting Concept. The app is our first effort to gamify such a concept and includes consistent feedback mechanisms, such as rewards, goal progress, and animal reactions. We’ll discuss how the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s education department is using it to extend the relationship and the learning of our guests. We’ll bring devices for participants to use to explore the apps, and we’ll build in time for session participants to play! As of December 2015, the game is still in development. It is projected to be completed in May 2016, and we’d be very excited to present it first at NMEA. We will also present the revised version of Kelp Forests: A Young Explorers Guide - an ebook about the Kelp Forest and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s kelp forest exhibit.

jlehnhard@mbayaq.org, @joeyelle

This workshop will feature two pieces of primary level Monterey Bay Aquarium curriculum that are designed to support students’ development in communicating their explanations. We’ll observe rocky shore animals using live webcams and videos, read informational text about their body parts and behaviors (adaptations), and finally identify patters we see. Using Educreations and Little Bird Tales, we’ll discuss and practice how we can integrate technology meaningfully to help deepen student’s understandings. These activities are a great way to extend the learning from a field trip or field site experience with your students. This Monterey Bay Aquarium curriculum is available free to all educators and has been recently written to specifically support the three-dimensional learning of NGSS.

dlevin2@washcoll.edu, @dougdageologist

Capricorn eddy is observed and studied in previous studies since 1978. However, most studies on this eddy focus on individual eddy and the mechanisms are less understood. In this study, the Capricorn eddy will be studies in 20 years time period. The generation mechanisms details will be explored by studying the East Australian Current and their relationships. This study will give a general idea that in which situation the Capricorn eddy will generate.

dlindst@lsu.edu

Everyone likes a challenge and cards are hardly threatening. Use self-made or existing cards to introduce and become engaged in topics such as climate change, invasive species, biodiversity, the ocean, wetlands and our food. Introducing a topic with cards can be a powerful tool to get the conversation going for teacher workshops and in the classroom as well as engaging children and adults at outreach events. This workshop will introduce you to the way of cards. We will use cards in a small group activity to introduce climate change through sources and sinks, aquatic invasive species through native/non-native/invasive categories, biodiversity though plants in different salinity regimes in wetlands, food that we eat that are indigenous to North America or not, products that we use every day that are dependent upon healthy oceans and coasts and marine debris and persistence of items in the environment. Using cards is a simple and easy way to engage teachers at the beginning of a workshop, students in the classroom and adults and children at outreach events. They are inexpensive to make and are easy to transport and use. The advantage of using cards is to present different aspects of a topic in a small group discussion, to have your audience think about their choices and to get an engaged conversation and research started. Cards work well in teacher workshops as icebreakers. They can start a classroom or student-led investigation and are easy and engaging at outreach events. Most can be tailored to all ages.

laura.lipps@duke.edu, @laura_lipps

With the evolution of distance learning, marine educators can now reach an audience well beyond coastal communities. Recently, the sheer numbers of programs, various formats, associated costs, and of course technical resources have made it difficult to determine if an online class is a smart investment for both teachers and students. This interactive session will consider the full spectrum of online learning programs and break them down by class size, learning objectives, intended audience, and costs. We will compare technology and media tools including video, webconferencing software, and learning management systems. We will consider social media and virtual “classrooms” as teaching and learning tools and what they offer to marine education. This session is relevant to educators seeking to find continuing education or professional development opportunities, and also for those who wish to explore the possibility of creating their own online curriculum. We'll feature an interactive demonstration of distance learning technical tools.

alodge@usf.edu; greely@usf.edu

The Tampa Bay Coastal Watershed Inquiries, Stewardship and Education (TB C-WISE) program provides hands-on watershed education to teachers to foster experiential learning and stewardship of Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Sustained Professional Development program brings teachers to the bay via direct, field-based inquiries; and, watershed dynamics and education to 60 teachers’ classrooms via teacher professional development using GLOBE environmental sciences protocols. The program includes a series of environmental stewardship activities for participating schools within their region of the Southwest Florida watershed. The program engages science teachers via extended professional development that includes outdoor, field inquiries within Tampa Bay’s watershed and GLOBE environmental science training via indoor and outdoor inquiries. Teachers commit to several Saturday workshops from January through April in which they receive lectures then go out into the field to put their learning into practice. They enjoy learning new things to offer their students

tami.lunsford@gmail.com, @TamiTeach

Are you new to NMEA? Wondering exactly what we are all about? Since the early 1970s, NMEA has been where people representing all aspects of marine education get together to discuss common ideas and concerns in the field, and share expertise, resources and experience. Come meet the current NMEA leadership, learn what is new with the organization and how you can become more involved!

tami.lunsford@gmail.com, @TamiTeach

Come learn an overview of the basics of successful Project-Based Learning and how one high school teacher is using it in her brand new Marine Science course. She will share the basic information on how to build a PBL and the starting work she has done to create a new fully-integrated PBL course at her high school. Then, teams will work together on specific driving questions that interest them from the list she has begun. The participants will then use their own experience and expertise to help build PBLs in a shared document online. Each educator will go home with information on PBLs they can modify, perfect, and implement in their classrooms and programs. Know that true PBL takes time and a lot of training and practice to implement, and in one short workshop, you cannot possibly get enough information to be an “expert” in this technique. The presenter does not claim to be an expert, either, but after several professional developments at both the university and high school level and a few attempts at implementing this with her students, she has enough experience to provide the basics and help guide teams of others passionate in this wonderful teaching method. Project Based Learning allows students to follow their passion, allows them choice in how they move forward and the product they create, and connects learning to the real world. It is also the best possible way to prepare students for STEM careers and properly implement the NGSS by allowing them to work in groups and create projects together. They are a lot of work on the teacher to create, but much less work for the teacher once they are started, and the rewards are well worth all the up-front effort!