All aboard!

STAFF PHOTOS BY DAN PARKER Two groups of fifth graders recently got a boatload of science lessons with the help of some folks from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.

A few dozen H.G. Olsen Elementary School students went on a science-oriented field trip for about two hours Nov. 12 aboard the Katy, the Marine Science Institute’s research vessel.

The students watched as a trawl scooped up hundreds of tiny sea creatures. The kids were allowed to dip their hands into the mass of marine life and pull out individual specimens for a close look. John Williams, a naturalist who works at the institute, was on hand to identify and describe the critters.

Williams offered a variety of other lessons, demonstrating an instrument that measures water quality, among other things.

The Katy chugged up the Aransas Pass, looped around the end of the north jetty and traveled parallel to the shore of San Jose Island for a mile or two before turning back and heading back to the Marine Science Institute. Williams talked to the students about local coastal geography, wildlife and marine science along the way.

Sea science Clockwise from top: Lomenick Cartwright shows a moon fish caught during the field trip; a dolphin following the Katy breaches the surface; Olsen teacher Julie Findley demonstrates a hydrometer for student Lulu Spirlock; John Williams of UTMSI explains an instrument that measures water quality; students examine fish caught with the Katy’s trawl; and a second group of fifth graders depart on the Katy. Among others on the trip were Olsen

science teacher Julie Findley and Sarah Wallace, a Marine Science Institute graduate student. Both helped with marine science lessons for the kids.

The students got an extra treat when a pod of dolphins followed the Katy for about a mile, sometimes swimming up close to the vessel. The same day, on shore, the students toured the institute’s Wetlands Education Center (WEC).

The WEC tour and the Katy trip and were among many educational activities provided in recent years to Port Aransas children through grants from the National Science Foundation for what are known as GK-12 projects.

The Marine Science Institute and the UT Environmental Science Institute received two grants, each for about $2.8 million. One grant ran from 2002 to 2006. The current one runs from 2007 through the summer of 2011.

Ken Dunton of the Marine Science Institute is the lead author and project investigator in the grants.

The grants provide money to award competitive fellowships to graduate students in the marine and environmental sciences. They also help science teachers at the elementary through high school level become stronger teachers. The grants provide annual stipends and cover the costs of field trips, classroom supplies and teacher travel to workshops.

The funds are equally split between the Environmental Science Institute and the Marine Science Institute. The Environmental Science Institute conducts projects in Austin schools. The Marine Science Institute uses the grant money to support teachers at the Port Aransas, Flour Bluff, Aransas Pass and Aransas County school districts.

“Our theme is tracking a drop of water from inland watersheds to the coast of Texas, so we provide teachers in both locations with unique opportunities to learn about aquifers and estuaries,” Dunton said. Teachers and graduate fellows attend workshops and field trips to the Edwards Aquifer in Austin and on the coast near Port Aransas, with excursions including the ones on the Katy.

The workshops include lesson building activities that help teachers bring science to life in their classrooms, with the graduate fellows helping out. Graduate fellows lead classroom projects and class field trips.

“The partnership has been immensely successful,” Dunton said.

The grant funds also have been used to start the Summer Field Science Camp in Port Aransas and at an Arctic village in Alaska. The Alaska project was conducted by Port Aransan Cliff Strain, a science teacher at the Flour Bluff school district.

The Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program and the Gulf of Mexico Program have contributed funds for the Summer Field Science Camp.

Findley and graduate fellow Chris Wilson have initiated a plan for a science fair at Olsen for spring 2010.

Dunton is working on securing longterm funding to maintain some level of GK-12 activities to continue “well into the future,” he said.

“The sustainability of this program is important to me, as I can so readily see the benefits to graduate fellows, teachers and especially GK-12 students,” Dunton said.