The maury project: a teacher enhancement program to promote ocean science in the k–12 classroom

1. INTRODUCTION

Through the American Meteorological Society’s Maury Project teacher enhancement program educators are bringing the ocean into the classroom in ways that were unimagined just a few years ago. Student’s in the K-12 classroom are learning to measure sea-level from space using data from the TOPEX/Poseidon Satellite and seeing sea level changes caused by the El Nino phenomena.

The MAURY PROJECT is a teacher enhancement program on the physical foundations of oceanography. It is a cooperative effort between the American Meteorological Society, the United States Naval Academy, and NOAA . (Smith, 1995) It is also supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Teachers who are part of the Maury Project act as peer trainers by giving workshops to other teachers on various aspects of Physical Oceanography and demonstrating hands-on activities that can be used in the classroom to help students gain an appreciation for the important part the physical ocean plays in climate and our global environment. Teachers are trained during Summer workshops at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The workshop includes lectures by the Oceanography Department faculty as well as guest speakers from the Washington, DC area on a variety of topics pertaining to Physical Oceanography. They also participate is laboratory and field experiences, which includes a cruise on a oceanographic research vessel. As of this year the program which is in it’s 5th year, has Peer Trainers from all 50 states, Australia, the United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Canada and, as of this Summer, South Africa.

In order to spread the knowledge they have gained at these training’s and to help fellow educators integrate physical oceanography into their science curriculum, these Peer Trainers are expected to conduct at least two in-service training sessions in their own state or region. These sessions are conducted using the teacher’s guides on various topics of physical oceanography that have been developed by the American Meteorological Society in collaboration with teachers. During the first two years of the program, Maury Project Peer Trainers conducted over 180 session and reached over 3600 teachers.