The man who first found the wreckage of the doomed luxury liner Titanic now invites students to learn along with him as he continues his expeditions across the world's oceans.
Dr. Robert Ballard initiated the JASON Project in 1989, an educational program designed to get students excited about science and technology and named after the Greek mythological explorer Jason and his team of argonauts.
Lynbrook North and South Middle Schools are two of over 200 New York State schools that participate in the JASON program each year. JASON's year-long curriculum is recreated annually based upon the expeditions of Dr. Ballard and his science research teams. These project teams travel to locations worldwide and focus on different educational themes, while students conduct their own field studies and classroom activities to match experiments performed by host researchers.
The international program, now in its twelfth year, is sponsored in New York by the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES.
Through an interview process, several lucky students and teachers are selected to travel with these scientists as argonauts,' said Theresa Schaefer, BOCES representative. Locally, teachers and students will access Team JASON Online, a branch of the award-winning Web site www.jasonproject.org, which connects classes to actual expedition locations. Teachers involved in JASON receive specialized training.
This year, students will focus on Hawaii, regarded as a living laboratory and a hot spot for biodiversity. Students will examine Hawaii's geography, history, culture, watersheds, climate, ecology and ecological restoration. In addition to learning about island formation and volcano basics, students will discuss Pele, the legendary volcanic goddess, and study volcano monitoring, lava tubes, underwater volcanoes and volcanoes in space.
BOCES representatives describe the program as an interactive and comprehensive classroom-Internet experience.
It's a wonderful program, said Carolann James, program specialist. It has a great way of bringing technology and hands-on activities into the classroom.
Through videos and other curriculum materials, students and teachers accompany scientists as they explore active volcanoes, coral reefs, native plants, and the islands' rich history and culture. Students will track Ballard's research teams as they discover what it's like to be near an erupting volcano and its lava flows, and learn how rare and unique species have adapted to Hawaii's diverse, isolated environment. Past expeditions included trips to Peru, California's Monterey Bay, Belize, the Galapagos Islands and Yellowstone.
It's very worthwhile, with a totally integratable curriculum, said Norma Sherer, computer teacher at South. Our home and careers classes made poi, and our English classes picked up a story of a little girl raised in Hawaii. Children also learned a few Hawaiian words.
In addition to its classroom curriculum, the project's explorations will be shared with students worldwide via interactive live telecasts and ongoing Internet-based activities. Last week, Nassau and Suffolk students began a series of visits to BOCES Jerusalem Avenue School in Bellmore for four, one-hour sessions during which students can follow, in real time, various expedition activities.
We have three live satellite feeds and three interactive stations where students can pose questions, said James.
Students will be able to type their questions to scientists and researchers, which are then selected for answers, said Schaefer. This is the ninth year of participation for South Middle, whose entire sixth grade class of about 140 students was asked by their science teachers to write a question for Dr. Ballard's team. The top 50 were chosen for videotape submission.
One of our students' questions about plants was personally selected by Ballard. She was thrilled, said James McCabe, Social Studies teacher at South.
I was shocked. I had been seen internationally, wrote Jessica MaLordy, who asked if there were any plants only found in Hawaii that are safe to eat. I watched Dr. Ballard answer. Then he and a crew member, Luanne Johnson, went into particular plants and their uses.
School districts that choose not to travel to the telecasts can still participate through curriculum materials and videos. Participating students must meet specific intermediate-level learning standards, and are assessed by levels of performance.
Nassau BOCES became the first JASON project hub in New York State in 1993. Other sites in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia and Bermuda include universities, natural history museums, maritime centers and NASA installations.
