From Cruise to the Classroom

In 2017, UW School of Oceanography/College of the Environment graduate student, Sasha Seroy, participated in the VISIONS ’17 at-sea education program to gain experience conducting shipboard research using remotely operated vehicles and to gain a better understanding of the National Science Foundations underwater cabled observatory (Regional Cabled Array) and associated sensors.  The array, which is part of the NSFs’ Ocean Observatories Initiative, hosts >140 instruments  – all connected to an ocean Internet system off the Oregon coast. Sasha has been heavily involved in developing and implementing educational programs on sensor building for K12 and undergraduate students. She has trained both teachers and students on building temperature and pH sensors to help monitor their local environments.  As a TA for “Introduction to Ocean Sensors”, she developed a simple pH sensor that has been adapted and taught in high school classrooms through the UW School of Oceanography SeaState program, and is featured in the above video. This video highlights several Cabled Observatory sensors used to study dynamic ocean ecosystems and presents the student-built temperature and pH sensors as approachable analogs to monitor local phenomena with the goal of bridging classroom science with environmental context through hands-on learning.  A Spanish translation of the video is also available.