The End?!

The end of the first Ship2Shore Marine Educator program for Wiring the Abyss 2012.

I am grateful for every moment; connecting with students and educators, meeting awesome people on board, fascinating ROPOS dives, Pogo's first success, amazing hydrothermal vents, lava structures, tubeworms, old water, dolphin shows, sharks, whales, ship life, sunsets, the ocean, everything...

NEPTUNE Canada: Wiring the Abyss 2012 crew (opposite shifts are missing)

As a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction in science education, I see a great value in incorporating marine science into the K-12 education. Ocean Networks Canada with the Ship2Shore Marine Educator program continues to be a world leader in marine educational outreach and I am honoured to have participated as the marine educator aboard.

For further questions and feedback, please contact oceaned@uvic.ca

Cheers!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Life on ship!

2 weeks on a ship!

What does life look like and feel like if you live on a research vessel for two weeks?

R/V Thomas G. Thompson

The first question came into my mind was water... There were drinking fountains everywhere and water was not an issue. How do you maintain drinking water supplies on this ship? Interestingly, all the water used for drinking, cooking, laundry, cleaning, sanitation etc. all is originally ocean water, which is produced by the reverse osmosis system. So we had a good quality of water on board for all purposes.

There are air conditioners and ventilators working 24 hours on the ship, so there is a constant sound of air conditioners in the background all the time. During the dives, the R/V needs to hold its position. For that, the ship uses two bow thrusters and two main drive systems to keep the position. There is always the ambient sound of machinery in the background.

Cruising when it is rough might be tough, it may cause nausea. If it is light, just in case, I recommend a non-chemical treatment. It is the sea-bands which applies pressure on the certain accupressure points on each wrist. This accupressure point is called Nei-Kuan! Thanks to Stephen Farrington, I just learned about it on this trip:)

Sea-bands work

 
There is something very special for the R/V Thomas G. Thompson! The food is super-ultra-mega amazingly delicious!! Everybody is talking about how they will miss the food on the ship. The Chief Steward Sarah Wicker worked as a Chief for 30 years in many different places in the US and Canada. Actually, Sarah and her husband Grey lived on a sailboat for 26 years cruising world-wide on the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. They have two daughters and they were home-schooled, sorry, boat-schooled until high school. Now, their daughters are two happy, beautiful and successful women. Sarah, Grey and the second cook India are wonderful people!

Grey, Sarah, and India blessed us with the food they prepared

Another thing on board which is taken for granted is, there is no day off on boat, so it is hard to keep track which day it is, even what time it is, since in NEPTUNE Canada there are people working shifts 24 hours a day. Even early morning, for instance around 5am, can be as lively as during the day.

The boat is like your home, it really is like your own big house, since your stuff stays wherever you put them and you don't worry about locking things, your cabin doors. This big house has one garden that you cannot go in, but just look at. It is a unique garden which changes its shape and colors instantly in harmony with sky.

I really enjoyed having the Pacific Ocean as my garden during these two weeks.

Life is great on board!!

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Pogo visit

Yesterday was not only a successful day for Pogo, but also a beautiful day, as if the weather was celebrating Pogo's success with us. I went to see Pogo on a zodiac. Witnessing this historic achievement was a real privilege. Here are some photos from that wonderful, successful and delightful day!

The Leg 2 Chief Scientist and Associate Director of Science in NEPTUNE Canada, Kim Juniper and I had an interview about the process of deploying Pogo, being a scientist and how this world-wide achievement feels like as a scientist. After Pogo's first successful water column profiles, Kim Juniper congratulated the whole NEPTUNE Canada: Wiring the Abyss 2012 science team.

Once again, welcome Pogo!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Meet Pogo!!

!!! ROPOS and Wally have a new friend !!!

I am happy to announce the nickname of our VPS Vertical Profiling System:

POGO it is!

Actually, there were other nice candidates, but the final decision was Pogo and I personally think Pogo is the best one ever:) It is fun, easy and meaningful!

Pogo can stand for Profiling Oceano-Graphic Observatory as well.

Meet Pogo!

Pogo our new friend!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Compressed styrofoam cups!

In the distant lesson with Grade 3 students in Watkins Glen Elementary School, NY one of the subjects that we talked about was the notion of pressure in deep ocean. To demonstrate the impact of high pressure in deep water, I promised students to make compressed styrofoam cups in deep ocean. I wrote all the names of the students in two classes and painted a killer whale (orca) for them. The two styrofoam cups stayed in 2660 meters for 40 hours. It really was a long dive in such a depth and I was a bit worried about the cups, what if they would shrink too much that nothing on the cup will be readable anymore. We finally took ROPOS on deck with the cups. I was so happy to see them; they both turned out to be great!! Here is the picture of styrofoam cups, before and after:

Styrofoam cup original size, compressed size

Before the dive both cups were the same size, with a height of 12cm. After the dive the cup was compressed exactly to its half size; 6cm.

The two compressed cups will be mailed to the teachers Mrs. Wickham and Mrs. Hazlitt in Watkins Glen Elementary School, NY as a mementos of our Pacific to Atlantic coast virtual class.

Cheers from NEPTUNE Canada!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Periodic Table of the ocean!!

Have you ever heard about the periodic table of elements in the ocean?

Y. Nozaki from University of Tokyo created one! I think this is such a cool perodic table, which shows the vertical profiles of elements in the North Pacific Ocean!

Vertical profiles of elements in the North Pacific Ocean

For the complete article click here.


Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Nozaki, Y. (2001). Elemental Distribution Overview. Retrieved from http://elearning.zaou.ac.zm:8060/Science/Oceanography/Encyclopedia%20of%20Ocean%20Sciences/ELEMENTAL%20DISTRIBUTION%20-Overview.pdf

Conductivity of sea water

Conductivity of sea water depends strongly on temperature, somewhat less strongly on salinity, and very weakly on pressure. If the temperature is measured, then conductivity can be used to determine the salinity. Salinity as computed through conductivity appears to be more closely related to the actual dissolved constituents than is chlorinity, and more independent of salt composition. Therefore temperature must be measured at the same time as conductivity, to remove the temperature effect and obtain salinity.

How is conductivity for calculating salinity measured?

(1) For a seawater sample in the laboratory, an "autosalinometer" is used, which gives the ratio of conductivity of the seawater sample to a standard solution. The standard seawater solutions are either seawater from a particular place, or a standard KCl solution made in the laboratory. The latter provides greater accuracy and has recently become the standard. Because of the strong dependence of conductivity on temperature, the measurements must be carried out in carefully temperature-controlled conditions.

(2) From an electronic instrument in the water, either inductive or capacitance cells are used, depending on the instrument manufacturer. Temperature must also be measured, from a thermistor mounted close to the conductivity sensor. Calibration procedures include matching the temperature and conductivity sensor responses.

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Reference:

Properties of seawater. In SIO 210 Lynne Talley Lecture notes. Retrieved from http://sam.ucsd.edu/sio210/lect_2/lecture_2.html in June, 2012.