Register now for the Annual Meeting and Conference at WHOI
Please mark your calendar for MME’s 41st Annual Meeting and Conference in Woods Hole at WHOI’s Clark Building, Quissett Campus, which will be held on Saturday, April 8th from 8:30am to 4:15pm.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Kara Dodge, WHOI Guest Investigator
Insights into Leatherback Behavior using Tags, Cameras and Robots
Ken Kostel, WHOI Web Science Writer/Editor
Hands Across the Water: Introducing Students to Science at Sea
WORKSHOPS
Seabird CSI: Using Chemical Tools to Study the Biology of Seabirds
How Do We Explore?
Turtle TLC: Using Sea Turtles, Cape Cod Sea Turtle Strandings, and Turtle
Tour of WHOI’s New High Speed Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
Using Atlantic Salmon Telemetry Data and Developing Stream Obstruction Bypass
The Educational Whale Watch
Discovering Oceanography and Meteorology with Real-Time NERACOOS Buoy Data
RECEPTION
All are invited to a networking reception at SEA Education immediately following the conference.
For more information, including descriptions of each session and an event flyer, please visit our website! Please help us to spread the word about this exciting event.
MME Marine Art Contest
The annual MME Marine Art Contest is now underway, and the theme for this year is “Exploring the Marine Biodiversity of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.” There are five contest divisions: K-4, 5-8, 9-12, scientific illustration, and computer graphics.
Winning entries will be posted on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary website (http://stellwagen.noaa.gov), as well as used by the sanctuary and MME in their outreach programs. Notification and certificates will be sent to the participating teachers or individual students at their schools.
Click here for an event flyer and application form. Please share and/or post with your colleagues! Winning entries from 2016 can be viewed here.
The annual MA Marine Educators’ annual marine art contest is underway with a deadline of April 28. All students in grades K-12 are invited to participate. Entry is free. The theme is “Exploring marine biodiversity at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.” Winning art is incorporated into an annual calendar and tours the region in a traveling exhibit. Click here for more information.
Join colleagues from around the region for two days of networking and learning about what we study and how we study the Boston Harbor estuary and islands. The event will feature field trips, a Science Café, keynote presentations, lightning talks, panels, concurrent presentations, and panels. Keynote speakers are Anne Giblin from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Rich Batiuk from the Chesapeake Bay Program. The event is hosted by the National Parks of Boston and the Boston Harbor Habitat Coalition with additional sponsorship from Boston Harbor Now, Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program, Northeastern University, and UMass Boston. For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/bh-isymposium.
Place-Based Learning connects students to their immediate surroundings and heritage. This method, sometimes called “pedagogy of place” allows individuals to teach and learn through observation and doing, using personally relevant resources as the context for their academic growth. Museums, cultural centers, and many other non-traditional learning centers hold a world of educational, historical and cultural materials and experiences that enlighten all who visit them. Coinciding with traditional education practices, Place-Based learning centers possess the potential to enrich the learner’s experience and make difficult concepts clearer to understand.
Join the New Bedford ECHO Project on December 1st – 3rd for the first symposium on Place-Based learning. The symposium will feature key note speakers including the Secretary of Education, Paul Reville, and concurrent sessions and working groups focused on discovering new partnerships and best practices in Place-Based learning. The conference is free to attend and teachers can receive 10 PDP’s for attending. For more information and how to register visit oceanexplorium.org Or contact: Sara Meirowitz: 508-997-0046 ext. 123 or smeirowitz@whalingmuseum.org
In an effort to explore best practices by leading educational and cultural institutions nationwide, the New Bedford ECHO Project invites proposals for presentations and papers on Place-Based Learning to be delivered at a symposium held in New Bedford, MA on December 1-3, 2010. Place-Based Learning connects students to their immediate surroundings and heritage. This method, sometimes called “pedagogy of place” allows individuals to teach and learn through observation and doing, using personally relevant resources as the context for their academic growth. The symposium will focus on four main themes: Leveraging regional success stories on a national scale; Successful Place-Based Learning programs and partnerships; How standardization of the current educational system creates disparities in the educational attainment of native/underserved/minority students; Value and shortcomings of Place-Based Learning including assessment and evaluation
Submissions should broadly fit into one or more of the above themes. Presentations should be submitted as an article for review and publication in symposium proceedings. All submissions should follow the style outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001, 5th edition). Submit proposals to: Sara Meirowitz c/o New Bedford ECHO Project at 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740. Web: www.whalingmuseum.org. Proposals should be submitted in abstract form (less than 100 words) and are due by August 31, 2010. Honoraria and travel stipends may be available. Sponsored by the New Bedford ECHO Project and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. For more information contact Abbey Spargo aspargo@oceanexplorium.org
CALENDAR: Gulf of Maine Symposium – Early registration ends July 31st
Early registration ends Friday, July 31st for the Gulf of Maine Symposium, to be held in scenic St Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick, October 4-9, 2009.
GoMA will host a one-day workshop on Biodiversity in the Gulf of Maine on Monday, October 5th. We invite members of the science, management and conservation communities to join us.
The symposium is sponsored by the Regional Association for Research on the Gulf of Maine, in collaboration with COMPASS, Department of Fisheries and Oceans – St. Andrews Biological Station, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and the Gulf of Maine Area – Census of Marine Life.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Isles of Shoals (NH), Platts Bank (ME), Cobscook Bay (ME) and Discovery Corridor (Canada)
Here are a few highlights of summer research activities from our partners:
Leading a team of students at Shoals Marine Lab, marine archaeologists Nate Hamilton and Ingrid Brack (photo) found evidence of prehistoric Native Americans on Smuttynose Island, Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.
Studies of biological hotspots – areas teeming with marine life – continue at Platts Bank, an off-shore bank 30 miles east of Portland, Maine.
Sampling of intertidal and nearshore species continues in Cobscook Bay, near the Maine/Canadian border.
A two-week cruise is underway in the Discovery Corridor, from the shores of the Bay of Fundy to the deep sea. A 2008 National Geographic video shows you what this Canadian project is all about.
PUBLICATIONS: Recent papers on ecosystem dynamics
Gulf of Maine researchers have published two recent papers on changing ecosystem dynamics and fish communities using decades and centuries worth of data:
Using fish survey data from 1963 to the present, Peter Auster and Jason Link co-authored Compensation and recovery of feeding guilds in a northwest Atlantic shelf fish community (April 30, 2009, Marine Ecology Progress Series ). The abstract begins “Disturbance by fishing activities in marine ecosystems has resulted in significant shifts in the distribution, abundance and diversity of fish communities.” Dr. Auster (photo) is a key contributor to the GoMA Census of Marine Life.
Based on historic records dating back to 1630, a team of researchers led by Stefan Claesson and Andy Rosenberg published their final report on Stellwagen Bank Marine Historical Ecology (2009, Gulf of Maine Cod Project, UNH). Dr. Rosenberg is a project leader for the Historical Marine Animal Populations of the Census of Marine Life. Recent guest lecturers and historians, Karen Alexander and Bill Leavenworth, contributed to the report.
Congratulations to all on their significant contributions to our understanding of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem.
EDUCATION NEWS: Student video wins national recognition
A poignant and well-produced video, Our Oceans, Our World , by high school students Eric Kao and Jorie Heilman of Lexington, Mass. captured the admiration of regional and national judges. The winning video will be on display at the Smithsonian’s Ocean Hall throughout the year. The winner and runners-up can be viewed on our website – kudos to all who participated in the contest.
Living on the Ocean Planet video contest is a project of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl, initiated by GoMA and co-sponsored by the Census of Marine Life.
Editor’s Note
A special thanks to Census of Marine Life scientist, Dr. Michael Sinclair of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, NS for his recent interview for our blog, Celebrating Darwin. In Part 1, Reflections on Darwin , Dr. Sinclair discussed how scientific theories come to be, and in Part 2, Music and Darwin, how music inspired – and was inspired by – Darwin.
As part of our ongoing celebration of Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of Origin of Species, we invite colleagues to contribute to our blog in the coming months. If interested, please contact Susan Ryan.
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