Good storytelling is a powerful way to bring public attention to our science – especially when it happens in remote areas like the Polar Regions. Stories about the changing poles are common, but don’t capture the complexity of the data.  On January 10-11 a team from Rutgers University and the University of Delaware co-hosted a workshop for polar scientists to explore how to tell compelling science stories, and to bring data driven, critical analysis to undergraduate classrooms. The program was hosted at Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware, and drew 35 scientists from all over the U.S. and Canada. Predominantly early to mid career scientists attended the workshop with a significant number of advanced graduate students. The workshop began with the participants learning the ingredients of an engaging story and brainstormed how to apply to their own science story.  Scientists spent the day iterating and practicing their own story narrative led by expert – Ari Daniel, Senior Digital Producer at NOVA and independent science reporter Josh Kurz, a film producer and principal of Tilapia Films. Scientists also presented their latest polar science research in an evening poster session. In day two we switched focus and investigated how to take media stories back to the classroom. Participants explored the narrative and technical challenges their students face in evaluating data driven claims. Scientists received classroom ready polar science modules developed by Drs. Matt Oliver and Jon Cohen. These units are complete with video tutorials that can be integrated into the classroom. The workshop content was grounded in the Polar Literacy Principles, recently developed by the NSF funded Polar Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education (ICE) program. Finally the group explored how to use these newfound skills in constructing quality Broader Impact projects, drawing on resources of the NSF funded National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI). Workshop participants were very satisfied with the workshop content. We asked the participants to retrospectively rank a series of statements about their learning over the three-day program, comparing how they feel now to how they felt before the workshop (1= strongly disagree; 2= disagree; 3= agree; 4= strongly agree). The largest gains before to after the workshop were noted for “I understand the ways in which storytelling can be used to communicate research” and “I understand how to better plan and implement broader impact activities”. The smallest gains were for statements “Communicating research to a non scientist audience is important in my career” and “Communicating my research to scientists/research audiences is important to my career”. This workshop was a success despite the disappointment of our NSF colleagues not being able to attend due to the government shutdown. We hope to be able to offer additional programs for researchers to improve science communication about the polar regions.

RUCOOL hosted The Mandela Washington Fellowship—a flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)— which empowers young African changemakers and leaders through academic and hands-on training and networking. Representatives from 13 African countries learned about RUCOOL’s research and had some hands on interactions with our glider fleet.

Challenger Mission: Indian Ocean Monique Calderon, Melissa Gronske, William Biggs, Nate Deffler, Pratyankara Narasimhan, Karolina Zbaski Download Presentation Atlantic Sturgeon Ally Antipow, Robert Jarrett, Hanna Lambing, Casey Lippincott, Savannah Porcelli, & Toni Rose Tablante Download Presentation Sea Nettle Populations in Barnegat Bay, NJ Peter Ahlers, Amanda Boddy, Amanda Duerkes, Natalie Fiorino, and Laura Wiltsee Download Presentation Prelude and Response to Hurricanes Michael Gerun, Mike DiLorenzo, Cassidy Gonzalez-Morabito, Catherine Powell Download Presentation OOI Data Quality Caitlyn Lee, Harrison Smith, Jessica Griffith, Chantell Shalack, Emily Chen, and Avril Liang Download Presentation The Caribbean and its Sea Turtles Jason, Amelia, Kristen, Ashaar, Amber, Matt and Chloe Download Presentation Locating the Source of Anomalous Warm Water in the Waters off Anvers Island Steven Weber, Brendan Campbell, Amani Webber-Schultz Download Presentation

Original article from SEBS NJAES Newsroom, July 14, 2016 by Office of Communications Educators L to R: Tom Grych, Jennifer Smolyn, Dolores Taylor, Carolyn Laymon, Kimberly Kellam, Kelly Terry, Denise Hardoy, Sue Morrow, and Stacia Lothian. Dr. Bridgette Clarkston – workshop co-facilitator from California State University – is bending down in the front row. The best way to teach science is hands on, right? That’s the conventional way, but the polar regions and the obstacle of over 9,000 miles between cutting-edge polar science and the scientists, teachers and students who could benefit from this interaction demand another way. In June, Rutgers University departments of Marine and Coastal Sciences and 4-H Youth Development kicked off a unique Science Investigations (Sci-I) project, a four-day workshop for 21 educators in New Jersey and California who participated first-hand in an open-ended polar science investigation. The response was enthusiastic. “The best part of this project is that it will help me bring real world experiences into my classroom and will support me thinking about how to teach authentic science,” said Matthew Fichter of Cranford Middle School, New Jersey. Through hands-on activities, group discussions, scientist panels and field trips the teachers explored the data to make sense of it and to develop questions and hypothesis that were testable and finally to communicate their initial results. The project is part of the Polar Interdisciplinary Coordinated Education (ICE) funded by the National Science Foundation. Polar-ICE’s mission is to connect polar scientists with broader audiences to further the impact of their research, while connecting educators and students with data and cutting edge science. The workshop helped the educators understand the scientific process using and working with the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project and its data. Palmer Station is one of three U.S. research stations located in Antarctica and studies polar marine community, its habitats and the plants and animals that live there. The workshop is only the beginning of this Sci-I project, which will target students from a wide range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. “The exciting part of this project is that the data skills and process of science practices that we collaborated on during the week will be integrated into each classroom differently,” said Kristin Hunter-Thomson, Rutgers 4-H program coordinator in the Department of 4-H Youth Development. “All of it can augment what the teachers are already doing rather than being another thing to add on to their already packed curriculum.” In 2017, up to 60 students from each school will attend the annual Student Polar Research Symposium to present their research to peers, teachers and students from other schools in the project, and polar scientists. These symposia will be held at California State University, Monterey Bay, in February and followed by a similar session at Rutgers in June. “The Department continues with our Summer Science program for urban teens, which is designed to increase knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) while stimulating interest in STEM career paths,” said Janice McDonnell, associate professor and science engineering technology (SET) agent in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. “Then we finish out the summer with our EARTH workshop where 20 educators from all over the country will work with polar scientists to create new classroom activities using authentic science data.” original article from SEBS NJAES Newsroom, July 14, 2016 by Office of Communications

After deploying RU29 off of Brazil, Marcelo Dottori visited RUCOOL to discuss further collaborations. To read more about the deployment effort by Marcelo and his team at the University of Sao Paulo check out the Challenger Mission Blog

On July 2nd, Andrenette Morrison and Liam Ramsay visited Teledyne Marine Systems in North Falmouth, MA. They met with Teledyne official, Clara Hulbert, who provided a short tour of the facility. These interns were briefly educated on the different oceanographic technologies built there including the G2 Slocum Gliders. Andrenette and Liam will return to this facility later this summer to get a more in depth look at Teledyne Marine Systems.

Dr. Scott Glenn and Dr. Hugh Roarty travelled to Wuhan, China for the Third Ocean Radar Conference for Asia-Pacific meeting this past April. Dr. Hugh Roarty and Dr. Scott Glenn travelled to China in April 2016 to speak on their experience of using High Frequency radar in a coastal ocean observing system. The first meeting was the MTS/IEEE OCEANS16 conference in Shanghai. While in Shanghai they met with Rutgers alumna Yi Xu who is Director of the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Regional Project Office located at East China Normal University. They then travelled to Wuhan China to speak at and participate in the 3rd Ocean Radar Conference for Asia-Pacific. Lastly, Dr. Glenn delivered a talk at the second meeting of the Coastal Ocean Radar Network (CORNet) for China. The following are the talks given by Drs. Glenn and Roarty: 2016 Meeting Date Presenter(s) Title of Presentation Coastal Ocean Radar Network (CORNet) Wuhan, China April 17, 2016 Scott Glenn & Hugh Roarty HF Radar Applications in the Coastal Ocean Wuhan University Wuhan, China April 16, 2016 Scott Glenn & Hugh Roarty The Global High Frequency Radar Network Ocean Radar Currents for Asia-Pacific (ORCA) Wuhan, China April 15, 2016 Hugh Roarty Evaluation of Environmental Data for Searth and Rescue Scott Glenn The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System: Hurricanes, HF Radars, & HFR Network East China Normal University Shanghai, China April 11, 2016 Scott Glenn & Hugh Roarty The Mid-Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System: Application to Mean and Extreme Conditions MTS/IEEE Oceans 16 Shanghai, China April 11, 2016 Hugh Roarty Evaluation of Environmental Data for Searth and Rescue April 12, 2016 Scott Glenn Stratified Coastal Ocean Interactions with Tropical Cyclones