January 12, 2006
New UW center to help citizens learn about the oceans
Helping the public better understand the relationship between human health and the oceans, such as the environmental factors at work when shellfish develop toxic compounds that cause people to become ill or die if they eat the contaminated shellfish, is the initial focus of the new UW-based Center for Ocean Science and Education Excellence. The center was formally announced by the National Science Foundation last week.
“This poorly understood issue is widely pertinent for people in the Pacific Northwest, including Asian populations who eat shellfish regularly, Native American populations who have a traditional and economical stake in shellfish harvests, small ocean communities that rely on beach combers for tourist dollars and the largely urban populations who visit the seaside to harvest shellfish,” says Rick Keil, associate professor of oceanography and the principal investigator for the center.
The center, which will received $2.5 million during the next five years from NSF, is based at the UW’s College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences but is meant to be a clearinghouse for the region’s universities, agencies, aquariums, museums, companies and non-profits that have shared interests in educating the public about the ocean. Partners currently include the Seattle Aquarium and California Maritime Academy. On campus, partners include the School of Oceanography and the College of Education.
The central premise is that citizens need to become more knowledgeable about ocean science and informed by current research if they are to become better stewards of the marine environment, says the application at the center’s Web site at found at http://depts.washington.edu/cosee/.
The new center in this region is one of 10 across the nation. A key part of each center’s work is training scientists to be better communicators and teachers. The center based here, for example, will host courses and individual training sessions for researchers and students to prepare them for public speaking. Another charge for each center is to develop curriculum materials and standards for teaching ocean sciences in grades K-12.
Unlike the other centers, the one here has an additional charge: to establish “best practices” that bring people together physically and virtually so that they can attack an issue and produce an educational product to help others understand the issue, Keil says. He says regional groups already employing best practices include the Seattle Aquarium with its “Citizen Science” program that involves K-12 students in actual research on local beaches, and the UW School of Oceanography’s REVEL group, that sends high school teachers to sea each summer in order to provide them with first-hand oceanographic experiences.
The themes guiding the center here will rotate annual and also include marine hazards, changing oceans and endangered resources.
