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| Network Topics |
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Banana Slugs Release Ocean Literacy CD
The long-awaited, COSEE-sponsored children's music CD focused on Ocean Literacy has been pre-released by the Banana Slug String Band! The official release will be January 11, 2011 (1/11/11). In pre-release, the CD is available only through the Slugs website. As co-sponsors, COSEE Centers can order CDs at cost by contacting Monica Woelfel.
Once the album is officially released, it will be available in retail outlets nationwide and through iTunes and other online music services. The CD contains 14 songs and features guest performers such as George Winston, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet, Victor Wooten, Brett Dennen, Tim Carbone, Zach Gill and others. Special thanks to the National COSEE Ad Hoc Slug Working Group (Rosanne Fortner, Jan Hodder and Craig Strang) for providing project oversight and for reviewing all song lyrics.
Community Meeting Draft Report The Community Meeting held in Washington DC in early November yielded many exciting and useful outcomes. For a snapshot review, read this draft report (Word, 36 KB) from Cheryl Peach. |
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| Working Group Updates |
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Scientist Engagement Working Group The Scientist Engagement Working Group (SEW-G) is pleased to announce the final approval of the case study of Dr. Rick Keil of University of Washington, representing COSEE Ocean Learning Communities. Rick’s case study is now posted on the SEW-G website. Thanks to Tansy Clay, COSEE OLC representative to the SEW-G, Dr. Rick Keil, and all the SEW-G members for participating in this process.
Now that the SEW-G website includes three completed case studies, the National Network Evaluators at Inverness Research are beginning to evaluate the website and the project as the SEW-G and production team begin to work on disseminating the site to a wider audience. If you have any thoughts about publicizing the website, particularly to early-career scientists, please contact your Center representative to the SEW-G or the SEW-G Chair, Jessie Kastler.
In addition, the case study of Dr. Scott Glenn (Rutgers University, COSEE NOW) is nearing completion, and the production team anticipates beginning the approval process shortly. Dr. Brian McCann visited Dr. Adina Paytan (University of California Santa Cruz, COSEE California) in October, and has scheduled a visit to Dr. Peggy Fong (University of California Los Angeles, COSEE West) in January as the production team begins to construct the web pages for Dr. Michael Kemp (University of Maryland, COSEE Coastal Trends).
SEW-G and the production team welcome comments about the case studies from the whole COSEE community. Please contact SEW-G Chair Jessie Kastler with questions, suggestions and comments (228-872-4269).
Evaluation Working Group The Evaluation Working Group (EWG) is planning a second cross-COSEE Scientist Engagement Survey. We anticipate a January 4, 2011 launch. We're asking that all scientists who were engaged with COSEE in 2010 be invited to take this online survey. In addition to the basic demographic questions asked last year, we have added questions about the benefits that scientists derive from their COSEE encounters. EWG members are reviewing a revised draft and plan to have it ready for all evaluators to comment on by December 20. In preparation for this survey, each Center has been asked to identify a survey liaison (preferably someone with SurveyMonkey experience) and assemble their database of 2010 scientists with contact information. This survey is the second in a series that will enable us to report for the Decadal Review COSEE-wide interactions with scientists over a two-year period. We look forward to working with all of you and thank everyone for all of the work put into this effort. For more information, contact Ted Repa of COSEE-OS or Chris Parsons of COSEE NOW.
Web Working Group The WWG spent time this month working on the implemetation of the About Us pages for working groups, partners, and administrative staff. When completed, these entities will be able to post news, events, resources, About Us text, and blogs on COSEE.net, similar to the About Us pages published by the Centers. For more information, contact Annette deCharon, WWG Chair.
ENTS Sub-Group The Excellence in Networking Tools Sub-Group (ENTs) held a very successful Network-wide training webinar on November 19, focusing on evaluation tools. Several COSEE Centers that have successfully used evaluation tools made brief presentations on specific tools and their applications, and according to post-webinar survey feedback, the content was perceived to be informative and valuable. Watch for a Network-wide survey on future webinar topics, coming soon. Read more on the ENTs blog!.
Submissions for the Tools That Work collection are always welcome. For more information contact ENTs co-chairs Catherine Cramer and Carla Companion. |
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| COSEE at Conferences |
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AGU Fall Meeting 2010 (December 13 – 17, 2010, San Francisco, CA) NEW! Please join us for Strategies for Effective Education and Public Outreach: Climbing the Ladder of Scientist Success, an active lunchtime discussion of how to enhance networking, teaching, and professional skills. Representatives from COSEE Networked Ocean World, COSEE Ocean Systems, COSEE California, and COSEE Ocean Communities in Education And social Networks will engage participants in leadership development activities designed to help scientists maximize the impacts of their work. This is a Town Hall session, and will be held Wednesday December 15, 12:30-1:30. Contact Janice McDonnell for details.
Math Science Partnership-Learning Network Conference (January 23-25, 2011, Washington DC) A 90-minute session COSEE session will be held to share experiences and lessons learned between the MSP network (partnerships between school districts and universities around STEM) and the COSEE Network. Contact Bob Chen for details.
ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting (February 13 – 18, 2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico). NEW! A COSEE workshop will be offered Sunday, February 13, 2011 focusing on Network Science and featuring Dr. Karen Stephenson. Details here.
COSEE is participating in two sessions:- S26: Improved Broader Impacts = Enhanced Scientific Impact (for professional scientist efforts)
- S54: Student Engagement in Education and Public Outreach (for undergraduate/graduate student efforts)
Click here for session descriptions.
 | COSEE California's Emily Weiss presenting at the
CSTA Conference |
CSTA COSEE California, COSEE West, and SouthWest Marine Educators Association coordinated an Ocean Sciences strand at the California Science Teachers Association Conference in Sacramento, California attended by over 1300 science educators. A broad audience of formal and informal science educators attended Ocean Sciences education workshops Friday and Saturday of this 3-day event.
The workshops at this event included: teaching scientific observation skills to early elementary grade students; using inquiry-based approaches in squid dissections; learning high school biology through a comprehensive course focusing on marine biology; working with teaching tools that use real oceanographic, climatic and polar data; and introducing some practical applications of the Ocean Literacy Scope and Sequence. [more] |
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| Center News |
COSEE Alaska Alaska is presenting Communicating Ocean Science at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage on January 17, and a graduate-level Communicating Ocean Science course at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. COSEE Alaska recently published the COSEE Alaska Educator Guide to Resources for Teaching about Alaska's Sea and Rivers (PDF, 655 KB).
COSEE California Dr. Adina Paytan was recently featured in an article highlighting her work teaching Communicating Ocean Science.
COSEE Great Lakes The College of Exploration is hosting our culminating online program, December 8-14, 2010: COSEE Great Lakes, A review of 5 years of Science and Education Collaboration. Presentations will be posted from the Education Summit, and space will be provided for your responses and input to the white papers. Please join us online.
COSEE Networked Ocean World offers the most recent episode of Ocean Gazing, Clams in a Jam.
 | Participants trying out ROVs at Family Science Weekend |
COSEE Ocean Learning Communities participated in the Seattle Aquarium’s Family Science Weekend and coordinated with the University of Washington School of Oceanography scientists and students to host four activity tables. UW Oceanography graduate and undergraduate students provided a table with a taste test activity on salinity in Puget Sound; SoundCitizen scientists hosted a table on their water quality research using a watershed model and distributing water testing kits; scientists from Oceanography and the UW Applied Physics Lab provided opportunities to build and test out Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) in a tank; and members of COSEE OLC’s marine volunteer community provided build-your-own Cartesian diver and wave-in-a-bottle activities to help illustrate ocean principles. The weekend was a great success enjoyed by the 5000+ aquarium guests.
COSEE OLC, in collaboration with SoundCitizen and the Ocean and Coastal Interdisciplinary Science GK-12 program, is currently running the second iteration of its high school ocean chemistry curriculum, My Place in Puget Sound, which connects the chemistry of Puget Sound to students’ senses of place and community-based action focused on the health of Puget Sound. The curriculum features data from SoundCitizen, a citizen science-based project that investigates the chemical links between urban settings and aquatic systems. This 5-8 week curriculum is anchored to a central mystery from contemporary science concerning fish feminization in Puget Sound, giving rise to the question, “How can water turn a boy fish into a girl fish?” As high school students engage in investigations connecting to watersheds, wastewater treatment, and endocrine disruptors, they look for patterns in the data to support their answers to this question. Throughout the unit, students also conduct “self-documentation” activities that connect ocean science with their daily lives, in which they document their at-home practices concerning water use and health and beauty products that may impact the health of Puget Sound. The curriculum culminates in student-designed, community-based action projects that the students present at the University of Washington to an audience of scientists, marine volunteers, and educators.
COSEE Ocean Systems recently held their kick-off meeting with new COSEE-OS partners. Read the full report here (PDF, 761 KB).
On November 12, 2010 Carla Companion and Christy Herren from COSEE-OS presented a session at the New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative (NEOSEC) Ocean Literacy summit, an event for formal and informal educators, scientists, and policymakers to share ideas and tools for promoting ocean literacy. (NEOSEC is a new COSEE-OS partner.) This year's theme was centered on Ocean Literacy Principle #5: The Ocean Supports a Diversity of Life and Ecosystems, and featured a keynote speaker and panel from the Census of Marine Life to highlight the findings of the recent census.
During the Summit COSEE-OS ran a session entitled, Tools for Learning about Ecosystem Diversity: Concept Mapping Interdisciplinary Science Topics. In this hour-long session, small groups of educators and scientists chose a concept map created by a workshop or webinar scientist and brainstormed ways to connect the map to the content they currently address in their programs, or modify the map to make it suit their needs. The purpose of the session was to get the participants familiar with science-based concept maps created by scientists and to make them comfortable discussing how to tie in ocean science content that has already been created. The concept maps chosen centered on biodiversity in the oceans - including maps made by Dr. Peter Girguis (Harvard) on hydrothermal vent ecosystems, one by Deb Goodwin (UNH) on Seasons of the Sea, and a third created by Karen Orcutt and Kjell Gundersen (University of Mississippi) on the role of microbes in the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Educators and scientists worked to adapt the concept maps and then shared with the large group. An overview/tour of the COSEE-OS website resources (including links to archived webinars) was also given.
COSEE-OS PI Annette deCharon was recently featured in the University of Maine’s online newsletter.
COSEE SouthEast is a co-sponsor of the Basic Observation Buoy (BOB) III workshop being held December 13-14 at the Jacksonville University Marine Science Research Institute, Jacksonville, Florida.
COSEE West Former staff member Jane Lee recently had an article published in Science. |
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| Resources |
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Climate Talks Oceans Day A site dedicated to Oceans Day at Cancun is available here.
Ocean-Climate Website The World Ocean Observatory, in collaboration with the Global Forum, has created a special website to address the interrelation between ocean and climate, including video interviews, online links and resources, a news feed, and an interactive forum for comment.
OCEAN-OIL Funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Council for Science and the Environment and partners have created the Online Clearinghouse for Education & Networking: Oil Interdisciplinary Learning (OCEAN-OIL), an open-access, peer-reviewed electronic education resource about the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
STEM Newsletter Teachers' Domain and NOVA are partnering on a monthly STEM Newsletter.
Women Exploring the Oceans This website introduces the careers of several women in oceanography. Each woman has followed a different path and offers unique insights about her profession. Careers range from research scientists and professors to technical and support crew. Visit here.
NASA Educators Online Network The NASA Educators Online Network, also known as NEON, is a new learning community developed by NASA’s Aerospace Education Services Project. AESP is managed by Penn State University’s College of Education. The network allows teachers to collaborate with scientists, engineers, NASA Education Specialists and other STEM educators to help support their classroom work. To become a member of NEON, log on and follow the steps to complete a profile. |
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| Announcements |
Google Global Science Fair Google has partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American, and LEGO to create a new kind of STEM competition that aims to be the largest global science competition ever and will be open to all students age 13–18 around the world. To sign up visit the Google Global Science Fair landing page.
NOSB Academic Competition and Video Contest The 2011 Living on the Ocean Planet Video Contest is open to ANY high school student who wishes to participate. They do not have to participate in the NOSB academic competition to submit a video for the video contest. Application deadline is January 28, 2011. |
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Contribute to CNN! Send news and announcements of interest to the COSEE Network community to the editor, Catherine Cramer.
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| COSEE Centers and Council Representatives |
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| COSEE Alaska (Nora Deans, North Pacific Research Board) |
| COSEE California (Craig Strang, UC Berkeley) |
| COSEE Central Gulf of Mexico (Sharon Walker, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies) |
| COSEE Coastal Trends (Laura Murray, U of Maryland Center for Environmental Science) |
| COSEE Florida (Edwin Massey, Indian River State College) |
| COSEE Great Lakes (Rosanne Fortner, Ohio State University) |
| COSEE Networked Ocean World World (Janice McDonnell, Rutgers University) |
| COSEE New England (Billy Spitzer, New England Aquarium) |
| COSEE OCEAN (Bob Chen, University of Massachusetts) |
| COSEE Ocean Learning Communities (Phil Bell, University of Washington) |
| COSEE Ocean Systems (Annette deCharon, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine) |
| COSEE Pacific Partnerships (Jan Hodder, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology) |
| COSEE SouthEast (Lundie Spence, South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium) |
| COSEE TEK (Ivar Babb, University of Connecticut) |
| COSEE West (Linda Duguay, University of Southern California) |
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