Applications due April 17, 2012 for the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar program for undergraduates. The program will place students in a natural resource management agency and is designed to help prepare undergraduate students for graduate school and careers in marine science, policy, management, and outreach.
Read more at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/fellowships/summer-scholars
To learn more about the Summer Scholars experience, visit our Sea Grant Scholars blog.
The causes and effects of hypoxia have been confounding marine scientists since the 1970s, when so-called “dead zones” first started appearing in oceans and large lakes. Currently there are more than 400 dead zones worldwide.
How did this happen, and how can it be fixed?
As Nathan Gilles, Oregon Sea Grant’s 2011 Science Communication Fellow, spent time with Sea Grant-funded researchers Francis Chan, Lorenzo Ciannelli, and Stephen Brandt, he uncovered a rich and complex story. That story is revealed in Oregon Sea Grant’s new publication, Hypoxia:How Is It Affecting Ocean Life, and Why?
The publication is available for purchase, and as a free download.
More on hypoxia from Oregon Sea Grant:
New research suggests that major growth in the travel, leisure and tourism industry in the coming century may be possible as more people begin to define recreation as a learning and educational opportunity — a way to explore new ideas and cultures, art, science and history.
But in a recent study published in the Annals of Tourism Research, John Falk, Oregon Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning, says that increasingly affluent and educated people around the world are ready to see travel in less conventional ways, and that lifelong learning and personal enrichment can compete favorably with sandy beaches or thrill rides.
“The idea of travel as a learning experience isn’t new, it’s been around a long time,” said John Falk, an international leader in the free-choice learning movement. Falk is among a group of Sea Grant professionals focusing their research on how people learn in their free time – through travel, in museums and aquariums, and through other experiences outside conventional classrooms.
At OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Dr. Shawn Rowe and colleagues are working under a $2.6 million National Science Foundation grant to create a Free-Choice Learning Laboratory, using high-tech tools to observe and analyze use of the Center’s public aquarium exhibits and what people take away from them.
Falk, meanwhile, holds one of two Free-Choice Learning professorships established by Sea Grant with the OSU Department of Science and Mathematics Education, which has developed a masters’ degree program in the emerging discipline.
Writing in the Annals of Tourism Research, Falk and his partners from the University of Queensland, Australia explore travel as part of a “life-long and life-wide” learning experience, tracking the history of travel-for-learning back through the centuries, and examining how the experience has grown and changed in recent times.
“You’re already seeing many tour operators and travel agencies offer educational opportunities, things like whale watching, ecotourism,” Falk is quoted as saying in an article about the new research published today in Science Daily. “The National Park Service does a great job with its resources, teaching people about science, geology and history. The push for more international travel experiences as a part of formal education for students is an outgrowth of this concept.
“We’re convinced this is just the beginning of a major shift in how people want to spend their leisure time, and one that could have important implications for intellectual and cultural growth around the world.”
Looking for the perfect gift for the marine science, conservation and recreation lovers on your holiday list?
Oregon Sea Grant offers a wide range of publications, videos and other products, available from our secure online store and sure to please your ocean-loving friends and relations:
Browse the sites above for lots more great gifts for those who love the ocean and coast!
Oregon Sea Grant’s popular “Oregon Coast Quests” are the subject of an article in the October 28, 2011, edition of the weekly newspaper Oregon Coast Today.
Gray Whale breaching (photo courtesy of NOAA)
NEWPORT – If you love whales, enjoy meeting people and don’t mind spending some time outdoors on a blustery winter day, Oregon’s winter Whale Watch Week wants you.
Volunteers are being sought for training as interpreters and whale-spotting guides at state parks up and down the Oregon coast for the annual event, which takes place this year from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.
Gray whales can be seen off the Oregon coast year-round, but their numbers peak during their twice-yearly migrations between feeding grounds in Alaska’s Bering Sea and calving lagoons in Baja California. The full round trip is more than 10,000 miles (16,000 km), the longest known migration for any mammal.
During the peak of the southward migration each winter, as many as 30 whales an hour can be seen off coastal headlands and viewing areas. Gray whales can grow to 40 feet long and 70,000 pounds, and their migrations often bring them close enough to the coast to be spotted by the naked eye, if you know what to look for.
Whale Watch Weeks, started in the late 1970s by Oregon Sea Grant educators at the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center, has grown to a twice-yearly program administered by Oregon State Parks from its Whale Watching Center in Depoe Bay. During the winter and spring weeks, as many as 450 trained volunteers take turns at two dozen of the most popular coastal whale-watch sites, helping visitors spot whales and teaching them about the lives and habits of these giant marine mammals.
Volunteer training for Winter Whale Watch Week will take place on Sat., Dec. 10 at the HMSC Visitor Center in Newport. Dr. Bruce Mate, OSU marine mammal specialist, will preside. Additional training sessions for Spring Whale Watch Week will take place in January and February.
Welcome Oregon Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning Lab to the blogosphere!
The lab, based at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, employs cutting-edge research tools and technologies to study informal science learning. The knowledge will be put in practice in the form of new and improved exhibits in the HMSC Visitor Center, which is managed by Sea Grant.
The blog, launched last week, will to record the work of graduate research assistant Harrison Baker and other graduate students as they design, build, test and refine the new exhibits.
Under the direction of Dr. Shawn Rowe, Sea Grant’s Free-Choice Learning program specializes in conducting and applying research on the learning that happens when people choose to visit science museums, zoos, and aquariums in their leisure time, making specific and conscious choices about what they learn. The program was recently awarded a $2.6 million, five-year, National Science Foundation (NSF) grant – the largest ever received by Sea Grant – toward the creation of the new lab, which will employ the Visitor Center’s exhibits as tools for studying how people learn in a free-choice environment.
NEWPORT – Oregon Sea Grant and the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center join the Lincoln County School District and the Oregon Coast Aquarium this Tuesday to host Lincoln County’s first K-12 Ocean Literacy Symposium.
Sessions will take place at Newport High School, Sea Grant’s HMSC Visitor Center, and the nearby Aquarium.
The program, part of a district-wide in-service day for licensed teachers and administrators, is aimed at boosting students’ ocean literacy by providing Lincoln County teachers and their classes with better access to the knowledge and experience of the many ocean and coastal agencies and programs located in Newport.
The symposium is a district-wide in-service day for all licensed teachers and administrators. Participants will learn new strategies and resources for teaching marine science in the classroom to help students meet state standards. Teachers will explore the mud flats and learn new ways to engage students in math and science. They will also learn how to use songs to increase students’ understanding of complex topics and a variety of other teaching techniques.
“It’s really exciting to have a day where teachers, administrators, scientists and informal educators can get together to develop strategies for connecting our local students to the ocean,” said Rachael Bashor, OCA school liaison/partnership coordinator. “We are lucky to live in a county where our district is committed to taking advantage of the unique learning opportunities available in our rural coastal communities.”
Craig Strang, associate director of the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, will start the day with a keynote address at Newport High School. Immediately following, nearly 50 presentations from local teachers and agencies will be offered in break-out sessions at the OCA and HMSC.
The cover for Oregon Sea Grant’s video Preparing for Coastal Climate Change: What Oregonians Are Asking has won a Silver Award in the “Best Cover—Print/Other” category of the 2011 Magnum Opus Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Custom Media. There were 560 entries in this year’s competition, and the Silver Award was the top award given in the “Best Cover” category.
According to Magnum Opus, professors from the Missouri School of Journalism, along with leading custom-publishing professionals, judge the awards based on “informational and entertainment value, quality of writing and display copy, creative use of imagery and typography, and consistency of color palette and style.”
David Murray, director of the awards competition and editor-in-chief of ContentWise, said, “Your entry shone bright among an incredibly competitive field and bested the work submitted by your peers in the practice of marketing communications from around the globe. You should be proud.”
The jacket and label for Preparing for Coastal Climate Change were designed by Patricia Andersson of Oregon Sea Grant. The video was produced by Joe Cone, assistant director of Oregon Sea Grant; edited by Stevon Roberts; and supported in part by a grant from the NOAA Climate Program Office.
Copies of the video are available for $3 each plus shipping and handling from Oregon Sea Grant, 541-737-4849; or through Oregon Sea Grant’s e-commerce site at marketplace.oregonstate.edu. You may also view excerpts of the video on Sea Grant’s website.
Oregon Sea Grant is seeking applicants for a full-time position to lead marine education and visitor programming at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science center in Newport, on the central Oregon coast.
The position, an annual appointment with reappointment at the discretion of the Sea Grant director, provides leadership, development and management of Sea Grant’s marine education programs and visitor services. The program leader is responsible for the popular HMSC Visitor Center and its bookstore, K-12 education and teacher services, public programming, exhibitry and aquarium support. He or she reports to the Oregon Sea Grant Director and serves on the Sea Grant leadership team.
The new director will replace Nancee Hunter, who is leaving to pursue a doctoral degree.
A Master’s degree in education or a field closely required to the position duties is required; a PhD is preferred. For more information and application instructions, visit the OSU Jobs site. Application deadline: July 10, 2011.