SEA-IT-LIVE logo SEA-IT-LIVE

Sea Education by Accessing Integrated Technologies:
L
earning Involving a Virtual Experience

SEA-IT-LIVE will share the excitement of scientific research — conducted anywhere and with any team of scientists — with students of all ages, and with the general public.

Project Highlights: BiG RAPA Oceanographic Virtual Field Trip

Epic Track screen grab Researchers with the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education embarked on a 26-day research expedition studying the waters adjacent to the Chilean cost out to Rapa Nui. The cruise departed on November 19th, 2010 and landed ashore in Rapa Nui on December 15th, 2010.

During the course of the cruise videos were produced highlighting the daily discoveries and the cutting edge research conducted. Watch the cruise videos to follow along as researchers find a very unique algal bloom and sample some of the bluest water in the world.

Also, you can visit our YouTube™ channel for videos of the BiG RAPA cruise!

Introduction to SEA-IT-LIVE

Epic Track screen grab SEA-IT-LIVE will make accessible the open ocean, the planet’s largest natural laboratory, and will bring the thrill of shipboard oceanographic research to a land-based audience to teach contemporary topics including carbon cycling, climate change, and ecosystem health. SEA-IT-LIVE will bring viewers on research expeditions of the NSF-funded Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) and the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) programs. Viewers will be taken on “virtual field trips” by means of near real-time video broadcasts from sea capitalizing on advancing media technology.

EpicTracker logoOne goal of SEA-IT-LIVE is to bring viewers into the day-to-day activities of shipboard research. This will be accomplished by using high-quality video and EpicTracker™, a new product that geo-locates social media posts including blogs, podcasts, photos and videos and posts them on a map in real time. SEA-IT-LIVE has formed a collaboration with Archinoetics, a Honolulu-based high-tech firm that developed EpicTracker™.

A virtual field trip at sea with the C-MORE summer course

C-MORE summer session 2010 group photo SEA-IT-LIVE joined the June 2010 C-MORE summer course research cruise. We videoed researchers and students in action, and interviewed them about what their research and findings, and about the experience of living and working at sea. Click here to check out the final videos posted on YouTube™.

This six-week intensive microbial oceanography training course is offered to graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, and includes daily lectures, hands-on training in laboratory techniques, public symposia, and an at-sea experience aboard the University of Hawai‘i’s research vessel Kilo Moana. The six-day research cruise provides hands-on experience sampling the ocean and quantifying microorganism biomass, activity, and diversity. Sampling efforts were focused around a mesoscale eddy several hundred kilometers in diameter located southwest of O‘ahu (~20°N, 159°W).

Kapolei Middle School logo Bringing ocean research to the classroom

SEA-IT-LIVE has also established a key partnership with Kapolei Middle School, the pilot school for this program. SEA-IT-LIVE is working with science educators from KMS to develop curriculum for use in a formal classroom setting. As part of the collaboration, an after-school program, STEM Media Club, has been established that will use modern technology to bridge research science and real world problem-based learning. Students will work with University researchers and teachers to help create SEA-IT-LIVE episode content and website resources. Furthermore, the educational scope of SEA-IT-LIVE will be extended by encouraging students to become the educators, conveying what they have learned to their communities, while gaining interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

Future Projects

SEA-IT-LIVE is gearing up for a month-long oceanographic expedition in the South Pacific as part of C-MORE’s research mission. The cruise is to depart on November 17th, 2010, so please check back to join in on another virtual oceanographic field trip.

Support

Funding for the C-MORE summer course is provided by the Agouron Institute, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). SEA-IT-LIVE was developed with funding from the UH Sea Grant College Program, UH Mānoa, and NSF.

SOEST Facebook graphic Become a friend of SEA-IT-LIVE on Facebook.

 

Agouron Institute logo graphic. Moore Foundation logo graphic. SOEST logo graphic.
UH Manoa logo graphic. UH Manoa logo graphic. NSF logo graphic.

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