LADC-GEMM Hosts SeaGlide Workshop in New Orleans
– MARCH 16, 2017
 Educators build miniature sea gliders using SeaGlide model kits in a teacher workshop hosted by LADC-GEMM in New Orleans, LA. Photo Credit: LADC-GEMM. |
(From Winter 2017 Newsletter) Model SeaGliders help local Louisiana educators explore Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Science
Provided by Sara Heimlich, Oregon State University and Dianne Maygarden, University of New Orleans
The Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center – Gulf Ecological Monitoring and Modeling (LADC-GEMM) consortium, funded by GoMRI, in partnership with Louisiana Sea Grant and Oregon State Sea Grant, hosted a SeaGlide Workshop following the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science (GoMOSES) conference on February 11, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
SeaGlide is an educational tool in which students and educators build a fully-functioning miniature sea glider. Like real gliders, the SeaGlide models can travel through water by taking in or expelling water, changing their buoyancy. The SeaGliders can even collect temperature and pressure data as they move through the water. Gliders are quickly becoming a popular technology used in studying many aspects of marine science, from currents and temperature to collecting sounds made by whales and dolphins, like scientists from LADC-GEMM do for their research. The SeaGlide models provide an excellent teaching tool to help educators learn and then teach about these principles in their classrooms. LADC-GEMM has hosted several SeaGlide workshops for teachers.
Twenty-six educators local to the New Orleans region participated in a SeaGlide Workshop at the Coastal Education and Research Facility (CERF). The educators were instructed by researchers from the University of New Orleans and Oregon State University, as well as by eight students from Warren Easton Charter High School. These students have already built their own seagliders, and some have also been working on analyzing acoustical data from LADC-GEMM (see the fall 2016 Newsletter for more information!). They were able to provide instruction and guidance to the educators while they built their own gliders.
For more information on LADC-GEMM and their work with SeaGlide, visit www.ladcgemm.org.
