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. (I will give a brief overview of the Maury Project, it's goals and sponsors and how it has impacted our local area, for example in San Diego.)
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 out environment.
In San Diego I teamed up with oceanographers from Scripps Institute of Oceanography to develop an "oceanography camp-in" in conjunction with the San Diego Natural History Museum and the Stephen Birch Aquarium. Students and their teachers participated in a series of activities led by scientists and other trained teachers on subjects from "Wind driven ocean currents" to "sound
in the ocean". Several of the activities included using various internet sites to collect data for the activities, such as sea temperature and wind direction for our El Nino station and tidal information for the global tide activity. In my poster I will describe how these camp-ins and the workshops that accompanied them led to an increased interest in using the physical ocean as a medium for teaching other aspects of science, math and technology. In my own district we are developing a new science curriculum for 6th grade with physical oceanography as the theme for teaching all aspects of science.