During the week of July 18, COSEE-OS hosted a new workshop pairing UMaine scientists and graduate students with formal educators from Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In this workshop, scientists worked collaboratively with the educators to create concept maps enabling effective communication of complex research topics to a variety of audiences. The educators then worked with the graduate students to link multimedia assets (videos, images, news articles, and research documents) to their maps.

Evaluation surveys from past workshops have shown that educators desire real data to use in their classrooms. In the latter part of this workshop, the educators worked closely with the graduate students to develop curriculum appropriate for inquiry-based lessons based on research data provided by the scientists.

On Day 4, the graduate students also demonstrated some of the activities in the COSEE-OS publication Teaching Physical Concepts in Oceanography: An Inquiry Based Approach.

Concept Maps

Nutrient Sources and Management Impacting Eutrophication in Estuaries - How do we model and manage the effects of eutrophication? Damian Brady View/Save: Scientist Map | Consensus Map

Global Temperature Cycling - Where can we find evidence of glacial/interglacial cycling? William Ellis View/Save: Scientist Map I and II | Consensus Map

Climate and Calanus in the Gulf of Maine - How might climate change affect abundance of Calanus finmarchicus in the Gulf of Maine and how could we figure that out? Jeffrey Runge View/Save: Scientist Map | Consensus Map

Investigating the Impacts of Low Level Exposure to Arsenic - How are some environmental contaminants (low-level) contributing to human/animal disease? Rebecca Van Beneden View/Save: Scientist Map | Consensus Map

Deep Water vs. Tropical Corals - In what ways are tropical and cold-water corals similar? Rhian Waller View/Save: Scientist Map | Consensus Map