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.

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!

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!

Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium

The first ever Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium (KAMSS) took place April 9^th – 12^th and included presentations, workshops, and posters about research around Kodiak. Over 200 people attended the symposium including students from the local schools. Dr. Tom Weingartner and Dr. John Piatt helped get everything started at the Kodiak Harbor Convention Center on Saturday with talks about the physical settings of the Gulf of Alaska Continental shelf and local upwelling and marine hotspots around the Kodiak Archipelago. The next three days were filled with presentations ranging from physical and biological oceanography to marine mammals.

A total of nineteen posters were presented on Sunday night during

the symposium. Posters were submitted by researchers from Alaska, California, and Washington with some posters from students at the local High School too. The posters were put together nicely and the speakers were excited to share their research.

On Monday night the Fishery Industrial Technology Center (FITC) held an open house with lots of delicious food and tours of the facility. FITC, which is a division of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, primary mission is to increase the value of Alaska's fishing industry and marine resources through research, technological development, education and service. The tour was exceptionally informative and even allowed visitors to walk away with samples from one of FITC’s projects, freeze-dried salmon cubes.

There also were a number of workshops held on Saturday and Tuesday. Saturday included workshops on seabird mortality monitoring, communicating ocean science, and teaching the Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum. On Tuesday Kate Wynn, the person who put this wonderful symposium together, lead a roundtable discussion on what future research needs to be done in the Kodiak area while Gary Freitag did a monitoring marine invasive species workshop.

I was fortunate enough to join Gary out in the harbor earlier that morning to collect

a tunicate plate for the workshop that has been in the water since September. Numerous tunicates, barnacles, and other little organism were on ten plates placed through out the harbor however no invasive tunicates have been found in Kodiak! These plates will continue to be monitored by locals to keep track of any invasive tunicates that may make it to the Kodiak area.

Another Opportunity for Students in 7th-9th Grades!

The Sitka Sound Science Center is having a summer day camp called MAKING WAVES from May 31st till June 10th. This camp will allow students to explore marine biology, fisheries, and marine mammal science through fun, hands-on experiences. Campers will participate in marine mammal research, explore the intertidal, learn basic laboratory skills and even get the opportunity to kayak and snorkel. Tuition is $350, 10% discount if registered before May 1st, and scholarships are available. Contact the Sitka Sound Science Center at (907) 747-8878 to register or pick up a form at the Sage Building, 834 Lincoln Street.

Space is limited so Register soon!

2011 State Wide Science Fair!

On the weekend of March 19^th - 20^th, I was fortunate enough to volunteer and judge at the Alaska Science & Engineering Fair. This fair welcomes science, engineering, computer science, and mathematical projects from students K-12 in Alaska. More than 70 schools throughout Alaska were represented by a record number of more than 600 participating students. With a total of 513 individual and team projects the judges had their hands full on Saturday interviewing and scoring all of them. However, after a full day of work by judges, projects were chosen for awards presented at an awards ceremony on Sunday. The Senior High Grand Award winners for this year who will go onto the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May are:

First place Sophia Meyers with "Possible Applications of Superorder Selachimorpha (shark) Characteristics in the Marine Industry"

Second place, Noah Betzen with "The Effects of Calcium Carbonate on Ocean Acidification"

The team project of Nicole Emanuel and Marie Gotti with "Analyzing Protein Content in Common Vegetarian Meat Substitutes".

Pictures of some of the other projects at this year's science fair.

The Alaska COSEE (Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence) Ocean Science Fair took place at the same time as a “fair within a fair” for projects related to the ocean, watersheds, or climate change that also have a cultural component. I helped judge these projects, as a scientist, on their scientific content at the same time that cultural and community experts judged them on their community and cultural relevance. More than 40 projects were judged for COSEE Ocean Science Fair awards, which were given in separate categories for ocean science and culture.

Winners of the ocean science awards were:

Elementary:

Ben Post and Nicholas Post (Turnagin Elementary, Anchorage; Teacher: Janet Post)

“What Boat Design Can Cary the Heaviest Load?”

Middle School:

Christian Escalante and Sierra Moskios (Unalaska; Teacher: Story Miller)

”Waving, Rotating, Creating”

High School (tie):

China Kantner and Ember Eck (Kotzebue; Teachers: Lance Westing and Robbie Everett)

“The Big Empty”

Molly Volk, Paige Olson and Courtney Bird (Petersburg; Teacher: Joni Johnson)

”Genetic Differentiation of Cancer magister”

Winners of the cultural awards were:

Elementary:

Naasha Tallman (Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, Anchorage; Teacher: Desiree Cronin)

” Does Water Exist on Other Planets in Our Solar System?”

Middle School:

Molly Adams (Barrow; Teacher: Emily Roseberry)

“Bowhead Whales”

High School (tie):

China Kantner and Ember Eck (Kotzebue; Teachers: Lance Westing and Robbie Everett)

” The Big Empty”

Jadyn Edwardsen (Barrow; Teacher: Emily Roseberry)

“How Does the Preparation of Sinew Affect its Strength?”

China Kantner and Ember Eck also received a combined ocean science and cultural award.

All the high school students who won a COSEE award will be invited to attend and present their projects at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage next January with all expenses covered by COSEE.

AWE Camp for 8th graders!

An awesome, all expenses paid, opportunity for students currently in 8^th grade!

AWE Camp is a federally funded science and math camp, which provides upcoming high school students with a unique experience to have fun while strengthening science and math skills related to the study of natural history and daily camp activities. Spend three weeks in Homer, Alaska learning how scientists, researchers, and you use science and math everyday. Build and paddle traditional Umiak and bidarka skin boats, study marine life, explore the coastline by kayak, and go hiking all while making new friends. Participate in a number of activities to learn about the natural history of Kachemak Bay and sharpen your outdoor skills. After the camp, participants will continue to work with a Life Coach for nine months to help each student work towards achieving their goals while linking them into other educational and career opportunities.

Camp 1 will take place from June 9^th - July 2^nd

Camp 2 will take place July 11^th – August 3^rd

For more information call (907) 351-0053 or visit www.ageya.org to apply!