Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellows in NOAA's Office of Education

Working in the Office of Education has allowed us to pursue various opportunities in the areas of ocean and weather education and participate in decisions pertaining to NOAA's Education programs. We regularly attend the Education Council and staff meetings where our expertise as career educators is valued, and opinions on various areas are highly regarded. We are frequently asked to provide assessments on educational materials. We have attended hearings on Capitol Hill about marine debris and assisted in preparing briefings about NOAA education. We are also members of the Climate Education working group and have prepared information and activities for teachers on hurricanes for the 2006 spring NSTA meeting. As a member of the Smithsonian Ocean Hall education team, we have reviewed, critiqued, and assisted in composing the Ocean Hall 65% design review that will further guide the development of this addition to the Smithsonian. Beth is also working with the web portal portion of this team to define and develop activities that should be included on the Ocean Hall education web site. We have represented NOAA at NSTA regional and national conferences by greeting participants at the exhibit booth and presenting NOAA educational materials in workshops. Activities and curriculum materials were designed for student visits to NOAA's Heritage Week exhibit. Beth has been able to continue to advocate for Ocean Literacy through presentations at the Oceans 2005 MTS/IEEE conference held in Washington DC and at the Mid Atlantic Marine Educators conference in Beaufort NC. She is working with a core group to examine the scope and sequence for this effort as take the next steps. Beth has traveled to the New England Aquarium in Boston to assist in presenting an Ocean Explorer workshop and is looking forward to making more of these presentations. Rene' has worked with the National Weather Service (NWS) to review and assist in matching educational materials that are currently being distributed to teachers to the National Science Education Standards. Rene' has also written a book, A Big Storm Named Katrina, to be included in the Anaheim NSTA teacher education packets. We have been allowed to choose professional development opportunities, which will enhance our understanding in oceanography and meteorology. We have been given the liberty to involve ourselves in the activities that we feels will be most beneficial to us professionally.