NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — December 9, 2014 — The following was released by the New Bedford Ocean Explorium:
The collaboration between the Ocean Explorium and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wrapped up on December 4. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the joint project resulted in an Ocean Explorium exhibit "Life, Smoke, and Fire – Underwater: Deep Sea Vents Explored" which included artifacts from expeditions to the deep sea floor as well as special Science on a Sphere® presentations.
Principal Investigator for the project, Dr. Stace Beaulieu, presented project results at a Biology Seminar at Woods Hole attended by graduate students and colleagues. Dr. Beaulieu and her team, including Kate Madin, Kathy Patterson, Meredith Emery, Annette Brickley and others, conducted public outreach at the Ocean Explorium. Evaluations, performed before and after exposure to the exhibit and related presentations, indicate gains in learning for every audience: youth, life-long learners and educators.
The collaboration kicked off one year ago when Dr. Beaulieu spoke at an Ocean Explorium Global Voice event. She introduced the project and spoke of her research on deep-sea life. In addition, there were two free Family Science Nights at the Ocean Explorium focused on the Deep Sea Vent exhibit. At each of these, members of the public participated in Skype chats with scientists aboard research vessels at sea, engaged in a variety of interactive activities and viewed presentations on the Science on a Sphere® (SOS). Content from the collaboration is available for viewing on You Tube and at the NOAA SOS Users' Network website.
Ocean Explorium Executive Director Abbey Spargo attended the wrap-up session and stated that "The report on the collaboration was well received by the scientific community at Woods Hole. Dr. Beaulieu did a wonderful job overseeing all of the project components and her team, working with the staff at the Ocean Explorium, was exemplary in delivering interest and excitement to our audiences. This project successfully modeled the collaboration of formal research science and informal science education, and the beneficiaries were students who engaged with the new exhibit in field trips, families who discovered the Deep Sea together and the greater New Bedford community."