Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS28 Innovative Approaches for Linking Science and Society Through Education (Science and Society Connections)

Date: Friday, February 16, 2001, Time: 9:00:00 AM

Location: La Cienega

Duggins, D, O, University of Washington, Friday Harbor Laboratories, Friday Harbor, USA, dduggins@u.washington.edu

Menden-Deuer, S, , University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, USA, smenden@ocean.washington.edu

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL MARINE SCIENCE K-12 OUTREACH AT THE FRIDAY HARBOR LABS (FHL)

The FHL outreach program aims to enhance marine science education for K-12 students through interactive tours, seminars, equipment loans and expertise. We work with teachers on curriculum development and visit classrooms. A web-site enables communication with teachers, students and the public. In the future, this web-site will broadcast video and data directly into classrooms. In the past six months over 200 students visited FHL, getting hands-on experience and interviewing scientists. We collaborated with 3rd grade teachers developing a research program. The classes successfully progressed through formulating hypotheses, field-work, data-analysis and presentations. The programs success led to its expansion to the 6th and 8th grades. For high school students, FHL offered special seminars. This outreach was a positive and beneficial experience for all (incl. scientists) involved. Students were easily enthused, developed an excellent comprehension of the scientific process and consider science a career choice. In this presentation, we will highlight the key elements to organizing a successful program. Overall, this partnership between scientists and educators was found to be an excellent tool to excite children about science and improve science literacy.

This Session Listing

Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

Quicklinks