Laboratory renovation at the Ocean Research College Academy at Everett Community College

Everett Community College, Everett WA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project transforms makeshift research laboratory space at Everett Community College into a mainstream research laboratory with adequate electrical, water, and gas, a fume hood, seawater holding tank, and other requirements necessary for carrying out marine science research. The renovated lab will support the shore-based analytical and modeling aspects of on-going field studies of the environmental monitoring by students and faculty of the Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) at Everett Community College. ORCA has pioneered a unique and effective research training program for high-school students, many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds or who are from groups under-represented in the sciences. ORCA students learn first-hand, though inquiry-based, hands-on, research experiences that foster the questioning nature of science and how to use data to support ideas and hypotheses. ORCA science focuses on environmental research and the monitoring of the northeastern arm of Puget Sound, a location local to the college and for which the local community has a high level of interest in preserving and understanding its present and future environmental functioning and vitality. ORCA research involves monthly research expeditions aboard a local charter vessel that allows students to collect data and analyze trends in ocean chemistry, seabed composition, plankton diversity, and marine bird and marine mammal abundance and distribution. The new facility will allow studies of CO2 and nutrient cycling in the Sound and their impact on its water chemistry and organism development to be realized. Broader impacts of the newly renovated facility include enhancing infrastructure for science that fully integrates education and research for students from under-served populations engaged in carrying out environmental research of an important part of the Washington State coastline. Additional impacts include improving facilities that serve ORCA faculty, most of whom are women, two of whom are of Native American descent, and all of whom serve as positive role models for students. The project also enables collection and publication of data that addresses environmental concerns in the Puget Sound area, includes student-driven public outreach that showcases research results and demonstrates the excitement of discovery through scientific investigation.