Today was an all out adventure. Maggie and I were heading to the island of St. George for educational outreach at their school. Besides us, David Hyrenbach and Stephan Elliott worked out a plan to bring also onshore several other people. Ned Cokelet, Lee Harris, Ray Sambrotto, Emily Davenport, Carleton Ray, Dave Forcucci, and David Shull also accompanied us onto the Healy’s small zodiacs and headed toward Zapadni Bay.
Waiting
Emily Davenport and Maggie Prevenas wait as the orange zodiac boat above is lowered down for us to get into.
The ride across the sea to St. George was really fun. We went into the port and were met by Rodney, who was driving the bus to bring us across the island to St. George. It is set-up strangely because their port is on one side and their homes and school are on the other.
Zodiacs
Everyone is off the zodiacs, and the Coast guards collect the MS900 suits.
Once the Coast guards had the suits, we loaded into the bus to go across the island. It was a short drive of about 5 miles to get across the island to the St. George School. We were all getting really excited about meeting everybody. We got to the school and all got off the bus.
As we entered the school, we were met by many of the teachers and kids. We placed our coats and bags down and began to get ready for some icebreakers. Maggie and I had made a person bingo sheet with questions that describe different people to allow for some interaction between the scientists and the students. It was a huge success. It took a lot time for the students to find someone with turtle earrings (me), and someone who does not like chocolate (Maggie). Everyone had a great time.
Bingo Fun
Many of the students and scientists move around trying to get their
bingo card filled and to learn more about each other.
St. George Circle
Emily Davenport and myself enjoy talking about favorite animals with some of the St. George students. (Photo Courtesy of Carleton Ray)
After that we broke off into smaller groups, I took the entire high school which consisted of 5 students. The high school consisted of all boys, with the senior away in Anchorage. David Shull helped me as we sat and talked about what we do on the ship and some of the items found when he looks through the mud samples. We showed them some pictures of the Healy and also the type of equipment David uses to do his research. We then moved over to their science lab area to take a closer look at some of David’s samples he brought with him.
St. George High School
David Shull engages in conversation about how he got interested in science. On the right, one of the students checks out the clam under the microscope.
The students then left for lunch at around noon. The students returned along with some of the community members for our final presentation of the day. David Hyrenbach and Ned Cokelet did a short presentation of the overview of what the BEST program was and to help the community understand that they were an important piece of it all. We then invited back to the Healy several community members, teachers, and the 4 high school students.
Kids Back to Healy
Back on the Healy, the group was given a tour by Stephan Elliott. The group also got to look at some of the zooplankton samples in the lab. Emily Davenport explained what she was working on in the lab and took them to see the multi-corer. After seeing some of the science, it was off to the mess deck for dinner. After dinner, the guests were invited up to the Captain’s cabin and received a plaque to commemorate their visit. We then went back down on deck to help all our visitors back into the MS900s one last time for their return ride back to the island. It was a great day and we were all sad to wave goodbye to our new friends.