Area students embark on science journey

More than 2,200 fourth- through ninth-grade students in the Madison area will join Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard this week for a virtual adventure into the realms of inner and outer space. The event is part of the international JASON Project, Going to Extremes, a year-long project focusing on scientific exploration in extreme environments.

The students will meet March 7-10 at the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute, the education arm of the Promega Corporation, in Fitchburg for a series of live, interactive broadcasts from Aquarius, the world’s only underwater ocean laboratory, and from the Johnson Space Center.

Madison-area students will conduct remotely an observational study of the condition of coral reefs at Conch Reef, near the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquarius underwater laboratory in the Florida Keys (above). They will estimate mortality rates of the reefs via one-hour broadcasts from Aquarius. The students will post video footage of their results on the Madison JASON Web site, hosted by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. (Photo courtesy OAR/National Undersea Research Program.)

Underwater archaeologists from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and an astronomer from the UW-Madison Space Place will be on hand to answer students’ questions about conducting research under water and in space.

Madison-area students will conduct an observational study of the condition of coral reefs at Conch Reef, near the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquarius underwater laboratory in the Florida Keys. They will estimate mortality rates of the reefs via one-hour broadcasts from Aquarius. An Aquarius researcher, living in the underwater laboratory and making the same estimates in an actual scientific study, will compare the students’ estimates with results from the actual study.

Madison-area students will also make results from their own science projects available to the Internet community by filming presentations of their work. The footage will be available for the world to see on the award-wining Madison JASON Web site, hosted by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.

The Web site, launched in conjunction with the JASON broadcasts, features a timeline of underwater exploration from prehistory to the present, science updates and experiments for students, quizzes, information on different kinds of diving, and more. The site also provides aquatic science information for students, teachers and others interested in underwater exploration of the Great Lakes and the oceans.

JASON students at broadcast sites around the world will also take a virtual tour of a mock-up of the future International Space Station to learn how astronauts will live while carrying out research in space. Host researchers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston include Astronaut Bill Shepard, commander of the first crew scheduled to live aboard the new ISS.

During the JASON broadcast, students around the world will relay questions in audio and video to the two research platforms, and scientists there will respond in real time. Students will learn about the design, engineering, and maintenance of the ISS and Aquarius, the intensive training involved in preparing researchers for the extreme environments of space and sea, and the research conducted from these platforms.

The JASON project was founded in 1989 by Robert D. Ballard, following his discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic. After receiving thousands of letters from children who were excited by his work, Ballard and associates developed the JASON Project to enable teachers and students worldwide to take part in scientific explorations via interactive telecommunications technology.

Created in 1966, Sea Grant is a national network of 29 university-based programs of research, outreach, and education dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of the United States’ coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes resources. The National Sea Grant Network is a partnership of participating coastal states, private industry, and the National Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.