Winter time in Oregon makes doing any field work along the coast dicey, so most marine scientists find other ways to keep busy. For many of us that means getting to work analyzing the past year’s field work data, and even writing up research findings. While publishing your research is critically important to getting through a graduate degree in science, Sea Grant has helped me realize how important it is to communicate your work to a wider audience. Outside of your field, few people will hear about your research if you only communicate it through scientific journals. However, if you step out of the science bubble and engage in scientific outreach with a broader audience, you can reach far more people and it can be an absolute blast. Over the past couple of months I’ve volunteered to communicate science to third – fifth graders through Oregon State University ‘s (OSU) Winter Wonderings program, to anyone who was willing to listen at Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Marine Science Day, and I’ve just completed training to be an interpretive diver for the Oregon Coast Aquarium this summer.

Winter Wonderings 2017

Last winter I participated in Winter Wonderings with another OSU graduate student to teach young students about chemical reactions. We had a blast doing a demonstration of how enzymes can speed up reactions, culminating in colorful foam blasting out of two liter soda bottles. The young students loved it, but this year, my friend Jack and I wanted to teach something a little closer to home. We drew on our own research to provide a marine science extravaganza. Jack studies anemone-algal symbiosis and taught about how anemones use stinging cells to capture prey as well as hosting photosynthetic microalgae to provide another source of food. I devised a lesson plan to talk about fisheries science and how fish otoliths (ear stones) can be used much like tree rings to age fish and provide valuable information on fish populations change over time.

Teaching winter wonderings students that everything thinks rockfish are delicious. Photo by Jack Koch

Showing young scientists how to read rockfish otoliths to determine a rockfish’s age. Photo by Jack Koch.

Both our lessons involved getting the students to use microscopes, which we were a little worried about at first. Fortunately, the students loved it and were transfixed by watching anemone stinging cells fire and absorbed in counting rings in adult black rockfish otoliths. This outreach experience was incredibly rewarding and inspiring. Seeing how curious 8-10 olds are and their enthusiasm for learning reminded me of how much I loved hands on experiences like this and has motivated me to seek more outreach opportunities.

Marine Science Day and SMURFs

Training new SMURF recruits in proper collection techniques. You can see the SMURF (the cylinder of green and black garden fence mesh) in the bottom right corner. Photo by Dr. Su Sponaugle.

Each year Hatfield Marine Science Center opens its doors to the public for Marine Science Day. All the labs put on demonstrations of their work to show visitors what it is we do at Hatfield. This event is a great opportunity to speak to a variety of people about your work. My lab focuses on the early life history of fishes and has some really high-tech equipment to image larval fish in the ocean. My research focuses on slightly later life stages and uses some lower tech, but better named equipment. To collect juvenile rockfishes as they make the transition from their pelagic larval phase to their benthic juvenile and adult phase, OSU and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife deploy standard monitoring units for the recruitment of fishes (SMURFs). I used a combination of a prop SMURF and some video to train visitors in collecting juvenile fishes as part of my research. Everyone from five-year olds, who could barely hold the net we use to collect SMURFs, to the grandparents who brought them enjoyed learning about juvenile fishes and pretending to collect them.

Volunteer Diving at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

While most people cannot join me to collect SMURFs this summer, I wanted to give people a feel for what it is like to be in the water with rockfishes. I began volunteer diving at the Oregon Coast Aquarium a few months ago. Most of my duties include cleaning acrylic and vacuuming exhibits. However, I dive on Saturday mornings and get to interact with visitors as they pass through the tunnels in the passages of the deep. I am thrilled every time I give a visitor a high-five or a fist bump through the glass separating them from the water. Never before in my life have I felt like such a celebrity for cleaning, but I really want to talk to guests while diving. This summer the Aquarium has a program where divers use special masks with microphones to talk directly to guests. I’ve just completed training to use this equipment and am ecstatic about the opportunity to share my diving experience with the public. I’ll be talking with aquarium visitors every third Saturday this summer starting June 17th.

Coming Up

The weather is transitioning to typical spring and summer patterns which means I am starting up field work soon!. I leave tomorrow for a NOAA research cruise that kicks of my field season. Stay tuned for updates on rockfish collections aboard the NOAA research vessel Reuben Lasker and future SMURF adventures.