Category Archives: courses, classes and workshops

Whale watching volunteers sought

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Surf scoters and breeching gray whalePeople come to Oregon from all over the United States each year to learn about – and try to spot – the gray whales that migrate past our coast. Now’s your chance to join the host of volunteers who take up stations at prime whale-watching spots each winter and spring to teach people about these majestic marine mammals.

Oregon Sea Grant, the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon State Parks and Recreation team up Nov. 17-18 to offer training for volunteers in the Winter Whale Watch Week “Whale Spoken Here” program. Dr. Bruce Mate, OSU marine mammal specialist, and John Calambokidis, research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research, will lead the Newport training.

Pre-registration is required; sign up through Whale Spoken Here, the Oregon State Parks & Recreation whale-watching site.

This year’s Winter Whale Watch Week is Dec. 26-Jan. 1.

(Additional training will be offered in January and February for those interested in volunteering for the Spring Whale Watch Week, March 22-29, 2008).

(photo of surf scoters and breeching gray whale courtesy of the Oregon State Parks Whale Watching Center, Depoe Bay)

Summer 2007 marine science day camps for kids

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It’s not too early to sign your child up for this summer’s marine science day camps at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The four-day, age-appropriate summer camps on the Central Oregon coast are designed for youngsters 8-12 and 13-17 and cover a variety of marine-science topics. Hands-on classes and outdoor field adventures cover topics ranging from marine biology to geologic processes, marine mammals and oceanography. Classes and field trips are led by experienced educators from Oregon Sea Grant’s marine education program.

Registration fees range from $120-$140, and cover all instructional materials, field-trip transportation and a camp T-shirt. Lunches are not included.

Our day camps are extremely popular and fill fast – register early to assure your child a place!

NOAA workshop for science teachers

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What: Ocean Science and Exploration, a professional development workshop
When: Saturday, June 30, 2007, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Where: Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.

Classroom science teachers (grades 6-12) are invited to join NOAA education specialists Bruce Moravchik and Cindy Renkas for a day-long workshop on using the agency’s Discovery Center and Ocean Explorer Web sites to connect and engage students on subjects ranging from ocean careers to the watery realms of estuaries, coral reefs, and deep ocean volcanos. Stipends are available for teachers who commit to follow-up activities and evaluations.

Pre-registration (by June 11) is required, and space is limited. For more information contact Melissa Feldberg at Oregon Sea Grant, (541) 737-2758.

Sorry, but teachers who have participated in previous Discovery Center/Ocean Explorer workshops are not eligible to take part.

Workshop: Building and maintaining ornamental ponds

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What: Pond School 2007
When: May 5, 2007, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Where: Oregon State University’s Lasells Stewart Center

Corvallis, Ore. – Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Aquaculture Association will host a day-long workshop on Saturday, May 5 for anyone interested in ponds and ornamental fish. Featuring a broad range of speakers from Oregon universities, agencies, and the ornamental fish and garden industries, the workshop includes in-depth sessions on pond ecology, disease prevention and control, and pond-scaping, among other topics.

Classes prepare fishermen, scientists to survive at sea

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Marine safety class in actionNewport, Ore. – A series of one- and two-day classes offered by Oregon Sea Grant aims to prepare fishermen, scientists and others whose work takes them to sea to survive the worst of what the watery environment can throw at them.

Organized by Sea Grant Extension’s Kaety Hildenbrand and taught by the U.S. Coast Guard, the remaining classes, coming up in May and June, are directed at marine scientists, graduate students, aquarium specimen collectors and others whose jobs take them to sea, but who likely have not had the formal training safety available to commercial fishermen.