Derived Works - How does the original author feel?

Recently I encountered another version of a lesson plan that I have seen before. The new version was much more easily understood, worked with the time I had alloted, and had a nicer looking format. The author described it as their "own" creation. Had this author seen the similar older version of the lesson before as I had? Or did the author truly come up with an idea that she felt was groundbreaking?

With today's technology teachers are able to search the web for thousands of lesson plans and/or submit their own. When submitting your own lesson plan, search to see if there are other similar plans. When revamping someone else's lesson plan, you should either contact that person to share your ideas and/or give the original author credit for their original idea. However, the web is quite large and you could miss someone's work hidden in a remote server, but the date of posting will speak for the original owner.

Teachers don't mind sharing, but sometimes they just want a little recognition for their hard work.

Here is a little open source software criteria that teachers should also follow.

Derived Works:
- allow modifications of derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software (in other words - free) but give credit to the original source.

Keep posted as I am working on an entire article on the 'criteria' for successful open source collaboration for teachers.

See you next month!

PS: I will be at SECO (Science Education Council of Ohio) annual meeting in Akron, Ohio Feb 11 to do a poster session on NOAA's Teacher At Sea. Stop by and say "Hi"

What have you done this month outside of your normal classroom instruction?

Blogging has helped me document collaborations that I have done to enrich my own professional development or enrich the projects of my students.

Students: A group of students that I am advising on an engineering project met with an Athens Engineer this month to look at their designs for a wind energy project they are working on for a Skills USA competition spring 2011....... we can't give any details right now as we are still in the design stages :) Our guest engineer came with the help of the folks at the Voinovich Leadership School STEM program at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. www.voinovichcenter.ohio.edu


A first for me this month was working in the exhibitor's hall at the regional NSTA convention held in Nashville, TN. Wow, that is one busy place! As a teacher I have walked through the isles going from one booth to another, kind of like teacher trick-or-treat, but it is so different on the other side.

I worked in the NOAA booth with some FABULOUS people and I learned many new things.

The folks at the NOAA education office have many great resources for teachers - check it out! www.education.noaa.gov

For me, I learned some history on weather maps, the difference between El Nino and La Nina (Thanks Dennis!), a new way to do a lab demo I have done for years, and that teachers from all over Nashville were excited to see the NOAA booth and the resources they offered.

Get on the horn and call your friends: NOAA TAS Deadline Tuesday Nov 30!!

photo: calling home in my room aboard the Oregon II before shipping out

www.tas.noaa.gov

Don't miss out on this great experience!!

Hints:
Check all boxes that you will travel anywhere,
Check all boxes that you will go on any mission,
Check boxes that you will travel no matter how many days the mission,
Limit the dates that you can't travel,
If you can travel during the school year LET THEM KNOW.

I actually checked the box that stated 'under 2 weeks', but sometimes things happen and my mission was changed to 17 days. I took it anyway b/c this is a very competitive application and I didn't know if I would get selected again + the missions were filling up fast.

Good Luck!!

On the other end

So, I have mentioned that anytime you go somewhere, take down names. Sounds like a police investigator, but no matter where you are you can find an idea for your classroom or your professional development.

Today I took my son to Ohio University for the Ohio Chemistry Contest, and there I ran into a teacher I met summer 2009 at a STEM workshop. We talked about some of the projects that we have done since the STEM commitment and he mentioned his involvement in the Ohio Riverboat (?) Project. (WISH I HAD HEARD ABOUT THIS ONE EARLIER). We shared some macroinvertebrate sampling stories, but what kept going through my mind was: This teacher needs to apply to the Teacher At Sea Program. I gave him the information and I think he may apply.

I try to inform any teacher I know about the opportunity because that is how I found out, from another teacher that I shared a table with at a random science OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) meeting.

Networking has always been a top priority of mine, and with today's technology it is hard not to network!

Ahhhh, the sea calls

Today I finally posted my post-survey form on the TAS training website. As I was filling out my post-survey many memories came back to me.

This week I presented my TAS experience at my local chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society (an professional organization for teachers and retired teachers). I have been a member for three years and each year I have been able to present some kind of professional development that involves travel. The ladies enjoyed the presentation and I tried to encourage some to apply for the TAS program.

During the dinner portion I passed around my photo book that I created on a photo website. These can make great souvenirs and journals. If you would like to do a lot of journaling you will want to research the best photo book for you as the one I used had a limit to the amount of type that could go on a page.

During presentations, I tend to ramble on at times so I created a DVD with photos and video of my trip which I overlaid voice recordings to explain the footage. This kept my presentation under 20 minutes. It was very difficult to take 17 days of experiences and compress into that small amount of time. Afterwards I had a question and answer session.
One question that was asked, "Would you do it again?" My answer, "YES!!!!!" After I complete my Global Field Program in Zoology I would like to volunteer time with NOAA and their fisheries department. It is hard work, but the environmental stewardship and the opportunity to 'do science' is a wonderful experience.

I will be presenting my TAS experience again in February at the SECO (Science Education Council of Ohio) annual conference in Akron, Ohio.

Home Sweet Home

One of the sharks we caught in our trawls.

I am still working on 'decompressing' from such an awesome experience aboard the NOAA ship, the Oregon II. When I hit the bed Saturday night I think I was out within 5 minutes. And to think, the crew and scientists aboard NOAA ships do this job over 200 days a year.

Thursday night before we arrived in Mississippi I woke up at 2100 hrs (9:00 pm) and thought I would take a look outside. The waters were still and looked like black glass. A crescent moon was shining over the gulf, and the stars were so abundant and bright. It was the most beautiful night I had seen since my July 1 voyage began.

Friday night was my last night on ship and I tried to stay awake to see the glow from the fires of the Deep Water Horizon..... but my body gave out to sleep. However, each night and day I could see oil rigs all along the voyage, especially Friday when we were traveling through "oil rig alley". I could not get over how many rigs were out there, which you can find many maps online that show where oil rigs are located.


Saturday at 0400 hrs (4:00 am) I woke up, I could feel the ship not moving. We were sitting outside of Pascagoula waiting until daybreak when we could start moving into shore. When a ship is going to dock all of her colors will fly. When out to sea the only flags on the masts are the MS flag, the NOAA flag, and the US flag.

Once we docked everyone was busy, I didn't get a chance to get a photo with the entire scientific party. We had 17 days together but we working so much a photo op didn't cross our minds. In this photo is Geoff and Sean from the NE labs, me, Bruce the other TAS, and Abbey - my roommate and a senior at the University of MN.

I hope to keep in touch with the entire bunch, you never know when another collaboration will surface.

One more day for me, many more days for the scientist who monitor our seas

Birds, Sharks, Fish, Water Chemistry……. Everything needs to be monitored for the ‘big picture’

NOAA Teacher at Sea: Kimberly Lewis
NOAA Ship: Oregon II
Mission: SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey
Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico
Date: Wednesday July 14, 2010

Weather Data from the Bridge
Time: 1115 (11:15 AM)
Position: Latitude 28.59.313 N, Longitude 94.28.958 W
Present Weather: partly cloudy
Visibility: 8 nautical miles
Wind Speed: 11.21 kts
Wave Height: 3 feet
Sea Water Temp: 29.7 C
Air Temperature: Dry bulb = 30.1 degrees Celsius; Wet bulb = 26.3
Barometric Pressure: 1017.50 mb

Science and Technology Log
(this log is a little lengthy, but very important concepts)

Southeast Fishery Bulletin released a statement on July 12, 2010 regarding the Shrimp Fishery to re-open on July 15, 2010 off the coast of Texas. Data that we have been collecting on board the Oregon II is sent daily to the regional office for review. From our data over the past week and data collected by the Texas parks and Wildlife Dept, the NOAA Fisheries Service has announced the size of the brown shrimp have reached a mark that allows the trawling to re-open from 9 to 200 nautical miles off Texas.

The shrimp fishery is closed annually off Texas to allow brown shrimp to reach a larger and more valuable size prior to harvest, and to prevent waste of brown shrimp that might otherwise be discarded due to their small size. http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/bulletins/fishery_bulletins.htm

During our sampling I have personally seen many sizes of shrimp. The past few days the brown shrimp have been very large. Personally, I have not seen shrimp this large before…… but living in Ohio most of our shrimp comes frozen and already beheaded.
When sexing shrimp the larger shrimp are usually female. This is the case with many species of organisms. As we are counting through the first 200 shrimp for data collecting, you can almost guess before looking what the sex of some shrimp will be just based on their size.

Tuesday the idea of whole ecosystem-based management was addressed.

An article by Hughes (2009) shows a relationship between species of seagrass and the species that they provide with habitat and/or food source. The data shows the importance of an ecosystem-based mgmt approach that incorporates interdependencies and facilitation among species (Hughes et al. 2009). This is the concept that is taking place by the US National Marine Fisheries Service (which is a department within NOAA) in relation to the "essential fish habitat" which approaches the protection of sea-grasses (Hughes et al. 2009).

What about the IUNC (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List? As of now, threats to biodiversity are often listen on a species-by species basis (Hughes et al. 2009). The research in the Hughes (2009) article suggests looking at connections between threatened species and their habitats...... ecosystem-based conservation. Again, the NOAA fisheries have already started this trend.

Some things that are done on the NOAA fisheries ships to maintain low variables throughout the years of sampling are keeping the same gear and using the same sampling methods. As far as site selection, the stations are random stratified. An example of this would be not going to the same station year after year, but sampling 20 stations in Area A. So the following year it may be another random 20 stations in Area A.

Habitat quality also plays a role in sampling. Commercial fishermen may question why NOAA chooses to sample in a place that has low or no fish, but it is important to monitor all areas. As the high quality habitat looses fish due to the fishing industry, fish from another area will move in. At first glance it may seem like the populations are fine, but if the other areas are being depleted because fish are moving into the prime area you start to see a shift in an ecosystem.

Here in the gulf we are not seeing any invasive species in our sampling areas, which is great news. A few years back some Australian jellyfish were making their way in, but you mainly see those closer to the coast. We have had good catches while we have been out, in other words a good proportion of organisms based on the depth of the water.


"Sorting the Catch"




So finally what can I say about ecosystem management? Hooray for the US Nat'l Marine Fisheries!


Works Cited:

Hughes, R. Williams, S. Duarte, C. Heck, K. Waycott, M. 2009. Associations of concern: declining seagrasses and threatened dependent species. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment: Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 242-246.

"Shrimp, eels, various fish, etc."


Personal Blog:

We have finished up our Texas stations and we are headed to the Louisiana west delta. I have been scrambling around to get some good photos of the lab, the sea, etc. because it has hit me that I only have two more days on the boat.

Usually journaling and photo taking come easy for me on my summer expeditions, but this one has really been a lot of work. With 12 hour shifts and trawling happening all throughout the night, there is not much down time. Which is probably fine b/c you are in the middle of the sea on a boat. What else would you do? This isn’t a Carnival cruise line. Hahaha.

I have really adjusted to sea life and night shift. Each day when I get off of my shift I hit the bed hard…… and don’t wake up until 10pm!

Chefs Walter and Paul have continued to feed us all well, too good at times. Everyone on the ship has kept their day 1 attitude and hospitality toward me and the other volunteers. It can be tough living in a small place, but it seems to work well on the Oregon II.