Archives: Events

UNH: Ocean Discovery Challenge Scavenger Hunt

UNH’s Ocean Discovery Day will take on a new look this year! Instead of our traditional in-person event, we will host the Ocean Discovery Challenge, a marine-focused interactive scavenger hunt! This virtual event will take participants on missions either online or in-person, where they will be challenged to make discoveries about our oceans, seacoast, and estuaries.

The Ocean Discovery Challenge will take place November 1 – 15, 2021.

It is free and open to the public, especially fun for school groups, clubs, and families.

Participants join the scavenger hunt via the smartphone/mobile app GooseChase. The scavenger hunt is a collection of “missions” that participants complete to earn points. Players can track their progress as well as others’ through the online leader board. Those with the most points at the end of the game will be eligible for cool prizes!

https://marine.unh.edu/ocean-discovery-day

Register by 9/21: STEM Week: Hurricane Heroes! Pre-Challenge Workshop

Register soon!

HURRICANE HEROES STEM WEEK CHALLENGE REGISTRATION

Wade Institute for Science Education
For Grades 5-8 Educators
Cost: FREEEngage your students in the “Hurricane Heroes! Storm City, Massachusetts – STEM Week Challenge” with the Wade Institute for Science Education, Lloyd Center for the Environment and Salem Sound Coastwatch.

Important Note: You must attend one of the pre-challenge workshops to receive a materials kit. Kits are only available for educators who teach in Massachusetts schools. The Curriculum Guide will be available for any teachers participating in the Challenge.

Pre-Challenge Teacher Workshop Participants:
To ensure that you receive your kit before your workshop date, register by September 14th if you’re attending the September 18th workshop, and by September 21st if you’re attending the September 28th/29th workshop.

https://www.wadeinstitutema.org/2021-massachusetts-stem-week-hurricane-heroes-stem-challenge/

July 17: Join GOMMEA on a Whale Watch

Join GOMMEA on a Whale Watch, one of the field trips for the 2021 NMEA Conference.

We’ll depart from the harbor in Rye, NH at 2:00 (Granite State Whale Watch).

Registration is through the NMEA website:

https://www.marine-ed.org/conference/2021/fieldtrips

 

 

Summer/Fall 2021: Gulf of Maine EcoArts Project

Gulf of Maine EcoArts: Current Project

The first Gulf of Maine EcoArts project  is a multi-year art/science/educational initiative that focuses on the changes in biodiversity in the Gulf due to climate change and other human impact.

Making art, and out of the activity of making art, awakening a sense of connection–to the teeming life in the Gulf of Maine, to the science and the scientists who are busy seeking ways to sustain that life, to the students, teachers, climate activists, and fellow artists who are collectively inviting us to take up our destiny as stewards—this is what the project is all about.

Goals: To promote stewardship and awareness by reconnecting people with the natural world – to our neighbors in the Gulf of Maine. We are all related to and connected with each other.  We are the Wild.

The central piece – a fictional Ecosystem: A 12’x24’x30’ sculpture, film installation featuring a 24 foot North Atlantic Right whale, and a selection of other endangered and threatened marine denizens, will be designed and built by six professional Maine sculptors and filmmakers and about two hundred students ranging from middle-school through college level.

The sculpture will be made with 95% beach debris and recycled, re-purposed materials.

First venue: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, Maine – Summer/Fall  2021.

http://www.gulfofmaineecoarts.org/the-project/

 

 

7/19: Wade Institute: My Soda Bottle Ended Up Where? Exploring Plastic Problems and Solutions

A Remote Professional Development Institute for Grades 6-12 Educators

2021 Summer Professional Development Institutes: My Soda Bottle Ended Up Where?

Virtual Sessions July 19-23 (8:30 AM – 1:30 PM EST)
Course includes 5 virtual sessions plus 15 hours of online learning.

Follow the journey of plastics in our environment through themes of chemistry, sustainability, and engineering. Learn why ocean plastics have become an environmental and human health concern in both coastal and inland areas. Investigate how new technologies are being used to reduce plastic waste by turning plastic waste into useful products and providing sustainable options for alternative materials.

  • Discover the origins of plastic waste and plastic debris in your neighborhood.
  • Design prototypes to filter plastic waste out of our waterways and wastewater.
  • Explore materials engineering from a green chemistry perspective.
  • Engage with community-based solutions to plastic problems, including community action and policy changes.
  • Go behind-the-scenes with industry experts to explore innovative solutions to the challenge of recycling plastics.
  • Investigate the various impacts of plastic waste on human health and the environment.

7/7: Wade Institute: How Does Your Dinner Grow? Exploring Connections Between Food Production and Sustainability

A Remote Professional Development Institute for Grades 6-12 Educators

2021 Summer Professional Development Institutes: How Does Your Dinner Grow?

Virtual Sessions July 7, 9, 12, 14, 16 (8:30 AM – 1:30 PM EST)
Course includes 5 virtual sessions plus 15 hours of online learning.

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the science, technology, and engineering involved in agriculture and other aspects of food production. Understand the food production systems at local, national, and global levels and evaluate the interdependent relationships these systems create between human health, ecosystems, and the global environment. Explore common and innovative practices for sustainable food production and follow the path of food from farm to table to waste stream.

  • Track where your food comes from and what it takes to get it to your plate.
  • Create a prototype of a futuristic farming option.
  • Design sustainable solutions to agricultural water use.
  • Investigate the economics of small food-focused businesses.
  • Explore the environmental impacts of farm and food waste.
  • Engage in conversations about food justice and equitable access to healthy food.

7/7: Wade Institute: Landscapes on the Move: Investigating Geologic Formations and Processes

A Remote Professional Development Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators

2021 Summer Professional Development Institutes: Landscapes on the Move

Virtual Sessions July 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 (8:30 AM – 1:30 PM EST)
Course includes 5 virtual sessions plus 15 hours of online learning.

Dig into the geology of New England and learn how our landscape is continually forming and eroding. Discover the role of glaciers in shaping the New England landscape, including kettle ponds and glacial potholes on the Cape and drumlins around Massachusetts Bay. Investigate and analyze other changes in our physical environment from landslides to shifting shorelines. Throughout the course, apply scientific and engineering principles to monitor these changes to the geological landscape around us.

  • Examine evidence of how glaciers formed our landscape.
  • Explore how erosion affects the built and natural environments.
  • Investigate how changes to the shoreline impact inland communities.
  • Engage in virtual tours of locations around Cape Cod and Southern MA to uncover how the landscape was formed.
  • Make connections between our geologic past, present, and future.
  • Participate in inquiry-based, hands-on investigations that explore geological processes.

6/21: Wade Institute: Seasons and Cycles: How Weather Affects Us and How We Affect the Weather

A Remote Professional Development Institute for Grades 3-8 Educators

2021 Summer Professional Development Institutes: Seasons and Cycles

Explore the dynamics of weather systems and seasonal cycles, including how the earth’s rotation influences these cycles, how nature responds and how weather impacts humans and the environment. Examine weather data over time and explore how we can use graphs and other models of this data to reveal how our climate is changing. Learn from scientists about the causes and effects of the increased unusual weather events in New England.
  • Gain hands-on experience with weather watching instruments and explore how professional weather observers use them.
  • Gather weather data and learn how scientists use weather to understand climate.
  • Interpret long-term data sets to reveal patterns in seasonal weather.
  • Participate in citizen science opportunities.
  • Create models to explore seasonal phenomena.
  • Engage in inquiry-based, hands-on investigations of weather-related phenomena.

May 6, 2021: It All Begins with Habitat: Casco Bay Estuary Partnership

Learn about how Beginning with Habitat can help you with your community conservation goals, and dive into an online habitat map viewer.

About this Event

Overview

This workshop features presentations by staff from the Maine Division of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Beginning with Habitat program, and an interactive online map viewing session.

WHO should attend: Conservation commissioners, planning board members, other municipal board members, municipal staff, community volunteers

Program Details

Presenters: Amanda Cross, Program Coordinator, and Michelle Warner, Cartographer, Beginning with Habitat, Maine Division of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

Beginning with Habitat helps Maine municipalities make scientifically informed choices about where to encourage development and where to focus their conservation efforts. The program houses the most comprehensive information on the location and quality of waters, wetlands, plant and animal habitats, and large unfragmented landscapes statewide. Much of this information is available online through their maps database, and they also provide every Maine town with three primary maps and three supplemental maps with a range of information specific to their location.

Ms. Cross and Ms. Warner will discuss their Beginning with Habitat Toolbox, outlining conservation strategies such as comprehensive and open space planning, land use ordinance tools, wetland and shoreland zoning tools, and financing. During the second half of the program, participants will work in small groups to dive into the online map viewer and learn about natural resources in their communities.

This is a free event.

Casco Bay Coastal Academy announces May 6 workshop, It All Begins with Habitat

May 1: Massachusetts Marine Educators Annual Meeting and Conference at Woods Hole

Join us (virtually) on May 1, 2021 for the Annual Meeting! This year’s theme is “Climate Change on Our Ocean Planet.”

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Arctic Meltdown: Why it matters to all of us

Dr. Jennifer Francis, Senior Scientist Woodwell Climate Research Center

The Changing Ocean South of New England: Technology and community

Dr. Glen Gawarkiewicz, Senior Scientist Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

For more information and to register, visit: https://www.massachusettsmarineeducators.org/annual-meeting-and-conference-at-woods-hole