Deep Sea Vents: Classroom

music
ambience: submarine

This month off the coast of Costa Rica, there’s an expedition underway to explore one of the most extreme environments in the world – and via the Internet, students around the world are able to participate. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Craig Cary is an associate professor at the University of Delaware. Onboard the Alvin, a submersible research vessel, he’s been investigating the life forms that exist near undersea hydrothermal vents, where the temperatures can be both nearly freezing and near boiling. Over the past few years, students have, virtually, come along for the ride.

“The excitement that we have out at sea is something that we think that kids who are thinking about or dreaming about in terms of being a scientist might be able to lock onto and use to help them move through their careers. And this year the “Extreme 2004: Exploring the Deep Frontiers” will allow students in high school and in middle school to come out with us, in a virtual way, on our expedition, and to be with us on a day-to-day basis as we go through all of the processes of doing science at sea… the personal aspects of interacting with the crew and getting the job done. And we also have a virtual science experiment – there’s a part of the site where students can come up with experiments. The site takes them through the scientific method – generating a hypothesis and questions – and then we choose 3 or 4 of these that we will actually conduct at sea for them, and then post the results for them on the site.”

The Project is called “Extreme 2004: Exploring the Deep Frontiers.” To get the link to their website, please visit us at pulseplanet.com, that’s pulseplanet – one word dot com. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

music

Deep Sea Vents: Classroom

Thanks to the creative use of technology, students around the world can participate in research at the bottom of the ocean.
Air Date:03/13/2008
Scientist:
Transcript:


music
ambience: submarine

This month off the coast of Costa Rica, there's an expedition underway to explore one of the most extreme environments in the world - and via the Internet, students around the world are able to participate. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Craig Cary is an associate professor at the University of Delaware. Onboard the Alvin, a submersible research vessel, he's been investigating the life forms that exist near undersea hydrothermal vents, where the temperatures can be both nearly freezing and near boiling. Over the past few years, students have, virtually, come along for the ride.

"The excitement that we have out at sea is something that we think that kids who are thinking about or dreaming about in terms of being a scientist might be able to lock onto and use to help them move through their careers. And this year the "Extreme 2004: Exploring the Deep Frontiers" will allow students in high school and in middle school to come out with us, in a virtual way, on our expedition, and to be with us on a day-to-day basis as we go through all of the processes of doing science at sea... the personal aspects of interacting with the crew and getting the job done. And we also have a virtual science experiment - there's a part of the site where students can come up with experiments. The site takes them through the scientific method - generating a hypothesis and questions - and then we choose 3 or 4 of these that we will actually conduct at sea for them, and then post the results for them on the site."

The Project is called "Extreme 2004: Exploring the Deep Frontiers." To get the link to their website, please visit us at pulseplanet.com, that's pulseplanet - one word dot com. Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.

music