Program Update: Deep Earth Academy – September 2010
Filed under: DEA,News & Resources,Program Updates,Program Updates - Deep Earth Academy,Understanding
Deep Earth Academy has just completed the 2010 School of Rock, which took place onboard the JOIDES Resolution during the IODP Cascadia ACORK expedition, 50 miles off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. School of Rock is an annual immersive earth science education program coordinated by Deep Earth Academy. This year, the seventeen School of Rock “students” were educators and science communicators from across the U.S. and Europe, representing museums, elementary and high schools, and public broadcasting stations. The instructors included scientists and staff from the US Implementing Organization and two universities.
For ten days, the School of Rock participants attended presentations about scientific ocean drilling, ocean observatory technology and gas hydrates; completed lab exercises in chloride titrations and carbonate determinations; and learned how to interpret Earth’s history from archived DSDP, ODP, and IODP core samples by making observations and smear slides of from throughout the Pacific. They also had the unique opportunity to watch science in action as researchers onboard installed a permanent hydrologic observatory (an Advanced CORK, or ACORK) 300 meters below the seafloor. The ACORK will monitor changes in temperature and pressure over the next decade. These data will ultimately be used to improve our understanding of earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest and the formation of gas hydrates in the Cascadia margin.
During the expedition, several participants used videoconference technology to remotely teach their classes and facilitate panel discussion amongst scientists and educators on shore. Eight participants, three instructors, and two science party members participated in a total of seven video conferences to reach an estimated 530 people. Audiences included museum staff, K12 students and teachers, undergraduate students, cyber school students, and attendees of a science fiction convention.
At the end of the expedition, the School of Rock participants returned to their home institutions to share their experience via multimedia presentations, workshops, and new classroom lessons. Since its inception in 2005, 75 School of Rock graduates and staff have conducted over 150 workshops and short courses for 3,000 participants in more than 30 U.S. states and five other nations.
