Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence SouthEast: Building on Success

South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, Charleston SC

Investigators

Abstract

This award continues funding for the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence - South East (COSEE SE) with administrative offices located at the South Carolina Sea Grant in Charleston, SC. The proposed regional COSEE effort is focused on the South Atlantic Bight in 3 states (North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia). COSEE SE has a centralized administration with a full-time director and geographically distributed team members. Activities include: annual, week-long Ocean Leadership workshops for teachers and scientists at different marine labs in each state, Ocean Awareness Days at many small informal education sites in each state, team-based workshops for middle school teachers based on a curriculum specifically designed for coastal SC, NC and Georgia, workshops to promote the use of regional ocean observing data in classrooms, Coastal Legacy programs that use the local African American heritage to develop activities that will attract these students to marine science, a test of a middle school immersion program for marine science in two schools, and a well developed evaluation effort. COSEE SE provides a significant regional service as the hub of a network for the education and outreach efforts of regional research programs such as SEACOOS and sub-regional, ocean observing programs. The Center will continue to expand this responsibility by reaching out to additional science and education partners, adding them to the existing data base inventory, and helping them have some direct interaction with COSEE SE activities. COSEE SE's efforts will highlight research on the South Atlantic Bight, inventory diversity projects, develop curriculum, and connect to the national COSEE network. COSEE SE will also be an active participant in the national education network for IOOS. COSEE SE and COSEE MidAtlantic propose to develop and hold a workshop for scientists and educators to develop applications for the classroom using real-time SEACOOS data. In addition, new partnerships are proposed. These new partnerships are possible because of the networks established in the initial funding period. The program includes an increased diversity outreach component building on the past COSEE SE successes with African-Americans, and will also expand the number and kinds of outreach and workshop programs to increase coastal awareness in the three states.