Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dillingham Sea Week!

Sea Week returned to Dillingham last week! This fun-filled week of marine activities was revived, May 9th-13th, by MAP agent, Izetta Chambers. Izetta invited kids K-5 to join her after school for an hour every day and participate in sea-themed activities. I joined her for the week to help show the kids what could be found in the water around them.

About 40 kids participated and each day was filled with interactive activities including a number of games and crafts. Crafts included making whale mobiles, a number of activity books, and even helping decorate a poster for the celebration of learning that took place on Wednesday. The kids also saw a presentation about sea birds, learned about the salmon life cycle, played a food web game, and got to play with a bunch of little critters. Microscopes were setup one day for the kids to look at plankton and we finished the week off with isopod races.

Sea week was a great success and will hopefully become an annual event. Thank you Izetta for getting the ball rolling on Sea Week again and for the people who volunteered their time to supervise. We would also like to extend a special thanks to Terry Fuller, Tim Sands, and Lilly Capell for leading activities.

Friday, May 6, 2011

May Newsletter!

The Alaska Marine Science & Fisheries Coalition has a bunch of exciting things to share! Check out our newsletter to see what the coalition is up to, some opportunities available for this summer, and find out how you can get involved!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

National Ocean Sciences Bowl Final

The 14th annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) took place April 28th through May 1st. Winners from the regional competitions all met in Galveston, TX to compete in the finals. During the weekend the kids enjoyed competing against each other while getting the chance to get out for some field trips and exploring the area. This years winner was a team from Marshfield High School in Wisconsin.
Alaska was represented at the NOSB this year by the Tsunami Bowl champions from Juneau-Douglas/Thunder Mountain High School. They took 11th place overall but took first place in the inaugural policy briefing section of the competition and won a trip to Washington State to meet with members of the Pacific Coast Growers Association.
Congrats to all the teams who competed this year and thanks to the adults who helped get the teams together!