Contact:  Michele Malarney              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Jeanne Kouhestani             2/11/98

With the innovations of the World Wide Web and satellite technologies, students in the classroom will be able, for the first time, to interact with a NOAA research ship's captain, crew, and scientists at sea through an interactive web site, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.

The project will swing into action today as tenth grade students from Kentlake High School in Seattle, Wash., receive their "official" orders to begin construction of an interactive web site from Lt. Cmdr. Bill Sites, commanding officer of the NOAA ship McArthur. Sites is a commissioned officer of the NOAA Corps, the nation's seventh uniformed service that operates and manages NOAA's fleet of ships and aircraft.

Throughout the demonstration project, the McArthur will be doing much of its work in national marine sanctuaries off the West Coast. These sites are among 12 sanctuaries under NOAA's stewardship. National marine sanctuaries protect marine and coastal areas of national significance. They support unique ecosystems and habitats of endangered species, or are valued for their commercial, recreational, historical, or aesthetic resources.

The McArthur, which is homeported in Seattle at NOAA's Pacific Marine Center on Lake Union, will serve as the platform for the Classroom@Sea demonstration project, in which the Kentlake students will construct an interactive web site that provides teachers and students opportunities to interact with the oceanographic investigations and research data of scientists and crew. Formal guidance will be provided by the McArthur, teachers who have gotten hands-on research experience aboard NOAA vessels through the agency's Teacher-at-Sea program, and National Marine Sanctuary scientists.

"The McArthur has participated in the Teacher-at-Sea program over the past several years and found the experience enriching for all involved. We look forward to the opportunity of working directly with students and expanding NOAA's outreach into the classroom, and hope this experience will inspire students to not only learn more about oceanographic research, but to explore a career in ocean science," Sites said.

The demonstration project is built upon NOAA's Internet@Sea program initiated in 1996, in which NOAA computer engineers successfully incorporated off-the-shelf computer technologies aboard NOAA research vessels at sea to provide high speed Internet connections. Internet@Sea has since expanded to include real-time at-sea data and video products. Classroom@Sea will combine this technology and Teacher-at-Sea program concepts to work with regional schools in developing an appropriate framework for teaching and learning.

"The virtual learning community of Classroom@Sea is exciting because it is being constructed by students for students, while on-line, in order to bring NOAA to classrooms around the country," said Michele Malarney, a program specialist with NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program who is spearheading the program in partnership with the University of Washington. "We plan to expand the program to other NOAA research ships to further demonstrate how students and teachers can use the web for doing and understanding science."

Through Classroom@Sea, students can learn such things as: what does it mean to be a scientist and crew member aboard a NOAA ship conducting oceanographic and atmospheric research? How do you go about doing scientific investigations about oceans and the atmosphere? What are National Marine Sanctuaries and what is their role in ocean science and management? How do we utilize the information we've learned and incorporate it into decision-making?

Phase one of the demonstration project, in which the web site will be constructed and evaluated, is scheduled for completion by the end of April.