How effective are high school educators in putting together a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in 20 minutes?
This was just one of the activities and challenges that high school science educators engaged in during a collaborative workshop between Mobile County Public School’s Environmental Studies Center (ESC) and Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Discovery Hall Programs (DHP). The workshop, held in September, was the initial meeting of educators participating in the ESC’s Coastal Ecology program. The goal of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for teachers to engage in a fun and educational day while learning about the opportunities both facilities offer their students.
After learning about the coastal ecology programs offered at the ESC and setting their field trip dates, teachers were delighted to get their hands in the sand with DHP’s topography and bathymetry interactive modeling sandbox.
The ROV activity became quite competitive given the time constraints, which made for a fun time by the pool as the vehicles were taken out to test the success of the design. After a great lunch at May’s Café, the educators enjoyed a fabulous afternoon aboard Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s R/V Alabama Discovery, where DHP staff gave teachers a taste of the experience their students would have aboard the vessel on a field trip.
The opportunity for a collaboration of this nature was an exciting one for these Sea Grant education programs. Since both programs share the same goal of developing an environmentally literate public and workforce, to be able to play off the strengths of both programs to provide a wonderful experience for these teachers was invaluable and extremely well received.
"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system." – Sidney Hook
Meet the author
Tracy Jay, Ed.D.
Director, Environmental Studies Center
Tracy Jay is a member of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium's Engagement and Education Team. She is the director of the Mobile County Public School System's Environmental Studies... Read more
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