Bering Sea Ecosystem Collection

Students will become familiar with the anatomy/physiology, habitat and lifestyle of puffins. On the 2009 Healy Icebreaker expedition the wildlife survey team was primarily interested in bird diversity and population in the Bering Sea. Puffins were spotted during the cruise, especially feeding in and around Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Objective

* Students will learn about the unique nature of puffin

Students will sort organisms found in the Bering Sea into food chains and gain an awareness of the flow of energy and nutrients in the Bering Sea Ecosystem.

Objective

Students learn about the different organisms that live in Alaskan waters by playing the Fabulous Food Chain Game. In playing the game, they become aware of the flow of energy

Overview

Students will create a bookmark to help them remember that diatoms (ice algae) are the main producers in the Bering Sea ecosystem.

Objective

To create a tangible reminder of how the Bering Sea ecosystem's main producers (diatoms and ice algae) use sunlight and transfer that into food energy for use by most other creatures that live there

Students will undertake three different activities to help them identify a variety of Antarctic ice types.

Objective

To provide sensory experiences that will move students toward conceptual understanding of the types of sea ice found in Antarctica.

Preparation

It is suggested that teachers survey the Resources section before beginning this series of three classroom activities for background information

Overview

Much like an owl pellet, a bolus is all the indigestible material that is "thrown up" by an albatross. Shaped like a fat cigar, one can dissect a bolus to assess the health of our ocean, the foraging ground for thousands of albatross trying to gather enough food to feed their hungry chicks.

Objective

Students will learn

Note: Due to technical difficulties, there is not a Wimba archive for this event. A PDF of the slides and accompanying audio file are available. This event with PolarTREC Teacher, Tom Harten, and the seabird ecology team led by PI, Dan Roby, covered the research being conducted on Black-Legged Kittiwakes and Thick-Billed Murres in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering

PolarTREC Teacher, Mark McKay, heads to the Bering Sea to participate in a research cruise with Dr. Ray Sambrotto. Read the article here or download the PDF (right).

This Live from IPY event was held with PolarTREC Teacher Simone Welch and numerous researchers working on the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea as part of the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Project.

How did you get into your polar oceanic career?

When Pat (Roger) Kelly went to high school he loved science. He spent family vacations by oceans, and he had a lot of jobs outside. Pat had an uncle who was his role model. He worked for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Pat thought he had a "cool" job because

This interview was conducted by the students of Project New Start in Flagstaff, Arizona with Bering Ecosystem Study researcher, Dr. Calvin Mordy. In the audio file he describes what is in the water, and how it is impacted by changes surrounding the ocean.

This Washington Post article features PolarTREC teacher Simone Welch and her science expedition on board the Healy in the Bering Sea.

This Live from IPY event was a private event held with J.C. Parks Elementary School, and other regional Maryland Schools. PolarTREC teacher, Deanna Wheeler presented along with researchers studying various components of the Bering Sea ecosystem. The audience was primarily elementary school students.

This Live from IPY! event was held for the International Polar Day: Oceans on 25 March 2009. Presenters included Dr. Lee Cooper on board the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea and Dr. Andy Mahoney who joined from the Scott Base in Antarctica. The presenters talked about polar ocean ecology, sea ice, and it's interactions in the polar oceans.

How did you become interested in studying chemical oceanography, and how did you get your current job?

Calvin grew up in Kansas. While in college he saw a flyer for a summer class doing chemical oceanography. That is all it took, and he was hooked! This experience then inspired him to go to graduate school in chemical oceanography.

To get

What is your advice for students interested in a career in marine science?

If a student was interested in working with krill, or in the ocean they would need to:

• get an undergraduate degree in a biological science (Tracy has a degree in zoology);
• then obtain a masters degree in a marine science;
• volunteer work helps (As a student, Tracy

Charles County Public Schools teacher, Deanna Wheeler will spend 21 days on he USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea as part of the PolarTREC program.

This CARE meeting, facilitated by Betty Carvellas, hosted oceanographic researcher Jackie Grebmeier of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at the University of Maryland. Dr. Grebmeier talked about her current research and current environmental conditions of the Bering Sea.

Arizona Daily Sun article about Jillian Worssam's PolarTREC experience on the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea. Article created from journal excerpts, and was published on 3 August 2008.

Live event with Jillian Worssam and researchers aboard the USCGC Healy. This event was about the BEST project with presentations about zooplankton and their role in the Bering Sea ecosystem.

This is a Live from IPY event with PolarTREC teacher Jillian Worssam and researchers aboard the USCGC Healy, from the Bering Sea, from 21 July, 2008. Researchers presented on the BEST expedition and project goals as well as talked about the role of zooplankton in the ecosystem. [Note: The archive of this live event didn't work so there isn't any

Students will calculate and measure out equivalent amounts of water to model the distribution of the world’s water supply.

Objective

Students will be able to compare the amounts of water and the states of water in different geographic locations.

Preparation

This activity shows students the relative amount of the Earth’s water in different sources- glaciers, oceans, etc… Before

Online news article featuring Robyn Staup's (Sweet) expedition aboard the USCGC Healy.

Online article from the New York Times, highlighting walrus ecology and the research conducted by Lee Cooper and other researchers on the March 2008 cruise in the Bering Sea aboard the USCGC Healy.

This archive is from the Live from IPY! Event held May 1, 2008 with Emily Davenport and other researchers working aboard the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea.

There were approximately 110 participants on the call.

Due to technical difficulties, there is no seperate audio file for this archive. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Overview

Diatoms are one of the main kinds of phytoplankton we found blooming in the Bering Sea. They are so beautiful, little glass houses with green gems inside. They occur in huge numbers in the Bering Sea in the initial spring ice melting algae bloom. Having one to touch and look at puts a face on what it is