Breaking Waves

The latest issue of Audubon, the magazine of the National Audobon Society, reports that in the 1970s an Alaskan high school science teacher purchased red-legged frogs from a supply house in the Pacific Northwest. Once the amphibians were no longer needed, the educator released them. Four decades later, studies show that frogs that have decimated local Alaskan amphibian populations have genetic ties to those found in Washington’s Columbia Basin. …

Oregon Sea Grant Extension specialist Sam Chan, a biologist who researches invasive species at Oregon State University, is leading a collaborative project with U.S. and Canadian researchers to educate teachers about the dangers of letting aliens loose. In one survey of nearly 2,000 teachers, Chan’s team found that schools had released dozens of well-known invasive species, like crayfish, waterweeds, mosquito fish, and red-eared slider turtles (above).

Learn more:

• Read a short version of the story at Audubon online
• Oregon Sea Grant’s Watersheds and Invasive Species Education program enlists teachers and their classrooms to discover how invasive species and other emerging watershed issues can be used as tools to engage students in science learning and community action
• Subscribe to our new WISE Blog

Oregon Sea Grant has published a revised Quests book – The Oregon Coast Quests Book: 2013-14 Edition. Quests are fun and educational clue-directed hunts that encourage exploration of natural areas. In this self-guided activity, Questers follow a map and find a series of clues to reach a hidden box. The box contains a small guest book, a stamp pad, a unique rubber stamp, and additional information about the Quest site. Participants sign the guest book to record their find, and make an imprint of the Quest Box stamp in the back of their clue book as proof of accomplishment. Then the box is re-hidden for the next person to find. The location of the clues and box remain a secret so others can share the fun. Oregon Coast Quest clues and boxes stay in place year-round.

This new edition of the Oregon Coast Quests Book contains 26 Quests in three counties (Lincoln, Coos, and Benton), including six brand-new Quests and one in both English and Spanish.

To order the Quests Book…

Free-choice learning and ocean literacy are the theme of the autumn issue of Confluence, the three-times-a-year magazine from Oregon Sea Grant.

The issue includes articles on exciting research taking place at the Hatfield Marine Science Center to investigate how people learn in aquariums, museums and other places when the choice of what, when and how quickly to learn is under their control. Additional stories look at OSU’s academic programs in free-choice learning, including a new online master’s degree in free-choice science, technology, engineering and math (STEM learning),   Lincoln County’s efforts to make its public school teachers and students among the most ocean-literate in the country, and our Oregon Coast QUESTS self-guided adventures.

The autumn issue rounds out the magazine’s first year, and includes an online survey asking readers to let us know how they use the publication, how they prefer to receive it, and what ocean and coastal topics interest them most.

The online version of Confluence includes a number of extras, including additional articles, video from the Free-Choice Learning Lab, and an interview with Sea Grant Knauss Fellow Jennifer Dresler about her year working  in Washington, D.C.

Learn more

• Confluence online
• Readership survey

One in four teachers who use live animals for classroom science projects report that they’ve released the animals into the wild when the projects are done, according to a new Sea Grant study – and the practice may be helping to spread some nasty invasive species.

The study, led by Oregon Sea Grant Extension’s invasive species expert Sam Chan, was presented at this week’s national meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Portland.

“Live organisms are a critical element for learning and we don’t want to imply that they should not be used in the classroom,” said Chan. “But some of our schools – and the biological supply houses that provide their organisms – are creating a potential new pathway for non-native species to become invasive.

“We need to work through the whole chain and educate both the teachers and suppliers about the potential damages – both environmental and economic – that invasive species may trigger,” added Chan,  former chair of the Oregon Invasive Species Council.

The study surveyed nearly 2,000 teachers in Florida, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, California, Connecticut, British Columbia and Ontario. Conducted primarily by researchers from Sea Grant programs in those states, it also included focus groups and interviews with teachers, curriculum specialists and biological supply house owners and managers.

The researchers found teachers using as many as 1,000 different organisms in the classroom, including many frequently listed species identified as known or potential aquatic invaders,  including elodea, crayfishes, amphibians, mosquito fish, red-eared slider turtles and other aquatic plants and snails.

Learn more:

• Read the complete story from OSU News & Research Communications
• Additional coverage from Science Daily, The Chronicle Journal, and MSNBC
• Visit Oregon Sea Grant’s aquatic invasive species page

(Photo credit: Jennifer England, Franklin Elementary School, Corvallis)

We’ve reduced the price of one of our most popular DVDs. The Watersheds and Salmon Collection DVD is now priced at $12.95 (was $29.95) plus shipping and handling. It contains the following four videos:

Life Cycle of the Salmon (5 minutes)
Governor Kitzhaber Interview (9 minutes)
The Return of the Salmon (33 minutes)
Salmon: Why Bother? (12 minutes)

You may purchase Watersheds and Salmon Collection DVD online from Oregon Sea Grant.

Oregon Sea Grant’s Sam Chan and Tania Siemens are featured in “Crayfish Invasion,” a recent episode of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s award-winning Oregon Field Guide program.

First aired on Feb. 17, the episode recounts how innocent elementary-school science projects have brought highly invasive crayfish into Oregon’s rivers and streams. Shipped to teachers for biology classes and then “set free” by well-meaning children or teachers, the animals spread quickly in the wild, out-competing native species. According to the series, shipments of live classroom specimens violates state wildlife laws but state authorities have chosen not to aggressively enforce the ban.

Chan, Oregon Sea Grant’s invasive species expert, and research assistant Siemens have been working with Oregon teachers to increase awareness of invasive species and enlist them and their classrooms in the fight to halt the spread of invaders in the marine environment. With the help of k-12 teachers and students, they are developing teacher toolkits with lesson plans, activities and other resources for teaching young people about the subject.

View video on the Oregon Field Guide site.

Climate change carries with it both risk and uncertainty, which makes it a challenge to discuss and an even greater challenge to prepare for. Oregon Sea Grant has joined the climate conversation by listening to coastal residents and trying to address their most pressing questions, with the assistance of topical experts.

Questions addressed by Preparing for Coastal Climate Change include:
• What’s the difference between weather and climate?
• What tools are used?
• How can scientists make claims about what the climate will be like 100 years from now if they can’t always reliably predict the weather just a few days from now?
• How is climate change related to storms, El Niño, and rising sea levels?
• What are some likely erosion effects we can expect to see as a result of these changes?
• What do “dead zones” have to do with climate change?
• How might increased levels of carbon dioxide affect sea life?
• How will storms and flooding affect the landscape in the coming years?
• What is government’s role in helping coastal communities prepare for and respond to climate change?
• What provisions are there for shoreline protective structures?

For additional resources about the changing climate, its local effects, and other coastal issues, visit seagrant.oregonstate.edu

Read more

Order online

A pair of volunteers for Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center  cast off next week for a six-week research cruise to the equatorial Pacific – and plan to post their adventures on the Web for for the rest of the world to share.

Salem retirees Michael Courtney and Annie Thorp will join a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) crew aboard the R/V Wecoma on a mission to repair, maintain and, if necessary, replace 14 buoys moored to the seabed several hundred miles south and west of Central America. The buoys are part of an array of 70 positioned along the Equator and stretching clear across the Pacific to north of New Guinea; they gather critical data about tropical atmospheric and ocean conditions and transmit it in real-time by satellite to researchers around the world.

This will be the second cruise for the Salem retirees, who have been volunteering at the HMSC since early last year – and this time, they’ll be sharing the experience with the world via their new blog, Buoy Tales.

Read more …

Follow Michael and Annie’s research cruise blog, Buoytales

Science teachers in grades 6-12 are invited to take part in the first of a two-part professional development workshop series based on NOAA’s “Learning Ocean Science through Ocean Exploration” curriculum.

The workshop, presented by NOAA and Oregon Sea Grant, will run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

This workshop prepares teachers to bring the excitement of current ocean science discoveries to students using the Learning Ocean Science through Ocean Exploration curriculum, CD, and the Ocean Explorer Web site.

The second workshop will be held in spring 2010. Educators who attend both full-day workshops will receive a $100 stipend. Advance registration is required and space is limited. The registration deadline is Oct. 23.

Download registration materials here.

“Some call it a treasure hunt, but Quest coordinator Cait Goodwin, a marine educator with Oregon Sea Grant at Newport’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), is quick to point out that the Quest Box at the end is not a treasure chest.”

So writes Julie Howard, Oregon Sea Grant program assistant, in the May/June 2009 edition of Oregon Coast magazine. Her article, “Oregon Coast Quests,” explains what Quests are and where to find them, and describes the experience of going on an actual Quest.

For more information about Oregon Coast Quests, call 541-867-0100 or visit the program’s Web site.