AMS Educational Intitiatives Foster Internet Resource on the World Wide Web

An informal program in marine science and oceanographic education was started at the Colonial Middle school in 1988. From that project and the addition of an expanding field experience in 1995, it was necessary to devise a means of storing data gathered from the project when this data was available. The specific task involved the measuring of beach profiles by the students involved.

The project started as a field trip to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, covering four days. The trip featured a whale-watching trip, time at the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, fieldwork on the bay and the beach and a number of recreational activities. In 1995, the program was enhanced by the addition of another four-day trip, this time to the Marine Science Consortium in Virginia, and several shorter trips to the Atlantic coast. One highlight of the program was the inclusion the first year of a second group, located in Marietta, Georgia, who profiled Tybee Island, Georgia.

Since 1994, The Maury Project has added to the concepts and the approach used to select and train students for these programs. Increased emphasis on physical oceanography helped generate an on-going research study involving the measurement of beach profiles.

A website called Seastar has been developed to allow the sharing of data derived by these classes and also to store any other data submitted from anywhere in the world. The web book provides information and data on the beaches measured and gives detailed instructions on how to make the necessary equipment, complete the measurements and submit the data to the site.

In view of the interests of the web designers, the site was expanded to include access to concepts of meteorology, astronomy and other sciences and elements of science education. New to the site are descriptions of the currently proposed Pennsylvania State Science, Technology, Environment and Ecology standards and how the Maury Project modules help teachers learn those concepts. Furthermore, the new AMS initiative, Water In the Earth System, will also be included in this analysis of applicable standards.

Locations of American Meteorological Society programs and other sources emphasizing physical oceanography and atmospheric sciences, such as The Maury Project, DataStreme and Water in the Earth System, are accessible from the site.

This paper will provide an update of this expanding web book, currently featured by The Bridge, a web site developed by the Marine Educator's Association. While geared to the interests of educators, the site is available to all individuals with an interest in the sciences and science education, particularly in those areas related to the Earth's atmosphere and oceans.