2009 Teacher at Sea: Douglas LaVigne
Bering Sea: Expedition 323
5 July – 4 September, 2009
Hello. I am Doug LaVigne. I live in Acworth, GA, a suburb in the North Metro Atlanta area. I currently teach Physics at South Cobb High School in Austell, GA, but my first love in science is biology. South Cobb has around 2200 students in grades 9-12. I have also coached soccer at the school and have worked with the school’s Science and Robotics clubs. I also work with a club at school named Bogg’s Doggs that allows our students to assist in rescuing and finding homes for abandoned and abused pets.
I was born and raised in this area, and graduated from South Cobb’s rival, Osborne High School. It is an amazing place to grow up, because you are a half hour from Atlanta to the south or to the north, the North Georgia Mountains. It presents wonderful job opportunities, and I’ve done everything from computer programming for a Fortune 500 company to swinging a sword at a joust. In my spare time I love playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and I play guitar and sing in a couple of local rock bands.
I originally wanted to be an electrical engineer, like my father, when I graduated from high school and attended the Georgia Institute of Technology. Georgia Tech is an amazing school, but I soon found out that I was in the wrong place. I loved my science classes, and teaching science would mean I could share my passion. I transferred to Kennesaw State University, where I obtained a Bachelors degree in Secondary Education in Biology, and more recently my Masters in Education.
Teaching science is about more than learning facts and formulas. It is a process which helps us understand the natural world, and sometimes we lose sight of that process when we teach. I have made it a goal to get involved in doing science, and bring that to my students. By seeing how science and scientists work, I hope I can inspire my students to pursue a career in science or at least leave high school with a better understanding of what science does and can do for us.
That is why it is such an incredible opportunity for me to have been selected as the Teacher as Sea on Expedition 323 of the JOIDES Resolution. The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program – US Implementing Organization (IODP-USIO) presented an opportunity for me to work in the field with scientists looking at the sedimentary record to help investigate such things as the surface water conditions during the Pliocene-Pleistocene and interactions between the sea and the continents at that time. And it was also an incredible opportunity to share the many roles that make such a project possible.
During my expedition, I toured the labs on the ship and worked at creating meaningful activities to connect this important research to what my students do as well as students in classrooms across the country. I also shared this experience with anyone else willing to follow my blog documenting our progress!
