Estuaries.gov - NERRS Education Bulletin

NOAA Education Strategic Plan Available for Public Comment

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is revising its Education Strategic Plan (Plan). NOAA recently received broad legislative authority from Congress through the America COMPETES Act to develop, support, promote, and coordinate education activities to enhance public awareness and understanding of the ocean, coastal, Great Lakes, and atmospheric science. The draft Plan establishes goals for NOAA education for the next twenty years as specified by the America COMPETES Act. NOAA encourages all stakeholders and users to review the Plan and provide comments. Comments on this draft Plan must be received by 5 p.m. EDT on August 29, 2008.

The draft Plan is available on the following Web site http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/draft_ed_plan.html. Comments should be submitted electronically by e-mailing to Education.Plan@noaa.gov.

For further information, contact Steve Storck, Education Analyst, NOAA Office of Education at (202) 482-2226 or Steve.Storck@noaa.gov.

Educational Events

Estuaries 101 and Chesapeake Exploration: A Curriculum Training Opportunity
This 4-day program to be held August 11-14, 2008 (based at The Virginia Institute of Marine Science) is designed to provide teachers from throughout the Chesapeake Bay region with the resources, knowledge and experience necessary to facilitate the integration of estuariesand their related issues into the classroom. The training program accomplishes this by providing educators with hands-on experience using the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) brand new Curricula: Estuaries 101 and Chesapeake Exploration. This program will help teachers to:

Utilize Estuaries 101 and Chesapeake Exploration curricula to implement authentic student-driven investigations
Develop an increased comfort level in the access and use of on-line, real-time and archived data to teach students about the importance of estuaries and monitoring the abiotic and biotic factors that influence them
Increase their understanding of the major estuarine and watershed physical, biological, chemical and geological processes

A Stipend of $200 will be distributed to educators that complete this training program. For more information contact:
Sarah McGuire, Education Coordinator of the Chesapeake Bay NERR, Virginia at 804-684-7878 or mcguire@vims.edu.

Other Educational Opportunities Across the Reserves
The following is a sampling of upcoming education and training opportunities offered at National Estuarine Research Reserves across the U.S. If you would like to find other teacher, student or community events happening at a Reserve near you, visit the searchable calendar at http://estuaries.gov/estuaries101/GetInvolved/Calendar.aspx.

Preschool Storytime and Arts and Crafts takes place now through August 11, 2008 at the Rachel Carson component of the North Carolina NERR (Gloucester Point, VA). To learn more about this K-12 Student Program Program, contact Lori Davis at (252) 838-0883 or lori.c.davis@ncmail.net.

An Art Opening featuring Maggie Karl takes place now through August 31, 2008 at the South Slough NERR in Charleston, Oregon. To learn more about this Outreach Program contact Deborah Rudd at (541) 888-5559 or deborah.rudd@state.or.us; or visit http://www.southsloughestuary.org.

Data and Information Corner

New report available on ecosystems and climate change
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report titled "Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources" that identifies strategies to help reduce the potential impact of climate change on estuaries, forests, wetlands, coral reefs, and other sensitive ecosystems. The report finds that climate change can increase the impact of traditional stressors (such as pollution or habitat destruction) on ecosystems, and that many existing best management practices to reduce these stressors can also be applied to reduce the impacts of climate change. For more information and to view the report, click here.

Coastal Journal Features NERRS Research
The Coastal Education and Research Foundation (CERF) has released a special summer 2008 issue of its journal, The Journal of Coastal Research (JCR), devoted entirely to research conducted in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. The issue contains 19 articles, most of which were written by NERRS researchers and Graduate Research Fellows.

Entitled “Research and Monitoring of NERRS Aquatic Ecosystems,” the special issue focuses on biological monitoring at the National Estuarine Research Reserves, as well as studies of the linkages between physical and biological components of estuarine ecosystems. The published papers, peer-reviewed by a group of more than 40 individuals, represent research conducted in 12 of the 27 reserves.

Topics include water quality changes associated with hurricanes; concurrent assessments of eelgrass beds and salt marsh communities; effects of removing invasive Australian pines on incubation temperatures in loggerhead turtle nests; and environmental factors affecting summertime eelgrass diebacks in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

The 13-year-old System-Wide Monitoring Program uses common protocols and standards for collecting water quality, meteorological and biological data at each of the 27 reserves. The data are collected and disseminated by the Centralized Data Management Office (CDMO). Water quality and weather data are available in real-time through a variety of sources, including the CDMO and NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center. Because of this capability, NERRS data are considered a backbone component of the Integrated Ocean Observing System.

The full journal is available on line at: http://www.jcronline.org/perlserv/?request=get-toc&issn=1551-5036&volume=55&issue=sp1.

Volume 3, Issue 3, July 29, 2008

In this Edition

	NOAA Strategic Plan Available for Public Comment
	Featured Educational Events
	Data and Information Corner

	National Estuaries Day
	Mark you calendar! National Estuaries Day is September 28th.

	Upcoming Conferences
	2009 National Science Teacher Association National Conference will be held on March 19-22, 2009 in New Orleans, LA

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