Coastal Opportunities for All Science Teachers:

Literature Integrated with New Experiences

Current Topics in Ocean Health and Fisheries

June 13-26, 2008
A Georgia Teacher Quality Higher Education Program
Offered by University of Georgia’s Marine Extension Service and College of Education

COASTLINEs 2008 will provide participating classroom teachers with opportunities to work alongside scientists and resource managers to study coastal ecosystems and fisheries and the problems created by human impact on these systems. Eighteen elementary, middle and high school teachers will be selected to work alongside research scientists conducting field and laboratory research and analyzing results for comparative environmental assessment. Literature related to fisheries will serve as the backdrop for this course, as participants engage in salt marsh studies and barrier island explorations along the Georgia coast line. The focus of the workshop will be on estuarine-dependent fisheries (>70% of all fisheries) and the complex relationships associated with economic, environmental, conservation, and management issues. Classroom implementation and evaluation will be ensured through sustained contact via a partnership of graduate students working with veteran in-service teachers recruited from previous MECA workshops, and will be coordinated by UGA College of Education faculty.

This is a residential program based at the Marine Extension Service’s Marine Education Center & Aquarium (MECA) on Skidaway Island, which will include sampling trips aboard the R/V (Research vessel) Sea Dawg, small boats, and the R/V Savannah. Instructors for the class will include education faculty from MECA and the UGA College of Education, scientists from the Marine Technology & Outreach Center, the Shellfish Research Lab, and research faculty from the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. Participants will stay in MECA’s air-conditioned dormitory, and dine in our cafeteria. The Marine Education Center & Aquarium is located on Skidaway Island, near Savannah.

This class is available for either 6 graduate credits through the University of Georgia’s College of Education, or 10 professional learning unit (PLU) credits through participants’ school district offices. Funding for this course is provided by the Georgia Teacher Quality Higher Education Program.

For more information, please call Bob Williams at (912) 598-2338 (or email: bobwms@uga.edu), or visit our website at http://www.marex.uga.edu/aquarium/wksps1.html. Potential graduate credit applicants should also contact Dr. Norm Thomson at (706) 542-4645 (or send email to nthomson@uga.edu).

< click on the button to access a pdf workshop application.