Education Archives - Mystic Maritime Consulting

October 29, 2013by maritime maritime No Comments

Teacher Professional Development

MMC facilitated Professional Development on-site workshops for middle and high school educators partner sites around the country as part of NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research education program. Groups of 25-30 teachers participated in each workshop. As part of the Learning Ocean Science Through Ocean Exploration curriculum, workshop content focused on ocean science topics such as marine biology, marine geology, bioluminescence, exploration, and seabed mapping, as well as the use of the NOAA Ocean Explorer web site.

Through a NOAA grant to the Ocean Technology Foundation, MMC led efforts to implement NOAA Ocean Exploration workshops in Portugal and the Azores. Relationships between teachers and ocean researchers were catalyzed, and each of the four workshops contained classroom, lab, and field components.

October 29, 2013by maritime maritime No Comments

Sea Monsters Revealed – Educator’s Guides

Client: Kre8360

Mystic Maritime Consulting created content for two Educators’ Guides to be used in conjunction with the Sea Monsters Revealed exhibit. This fascinating exhibit is similar to the well-known Bodies Exhibit, but uses plastination techniques to give viewers a close-up look at the inside of sea creatures. It also highlights ocean exploration and the technologies used in exploring Earth’s final frontier. This traveling exhibit spends several months at a time in the nation’s top aquariums. The Educator’s Guides are geared toward grades 4-8 and 9-12. They contain classroom-ready, hands-on lessons focusing on ocean exploration, bioluminescence, adaptations of deep sea fishes, and underwater robots.

October 21, 2013by maritime maritime No Comments

Oceans and Human Health

What can we learn from a squid about our own nervous system?

How can substances found in marine sponges help to treat cancer?

MMC creates curricula and teaches online courses on Oceans and Human Health (OHH). These courses have been offered as professional development for teachers through the College of Exploration, and to undergraduate students at Goodwin College in Connecticut. The materials serve as a general introduction to a cutting-edge topic in ocean science: the relationship between oceans and human health. Global climate change, harmful algal blooms, marine biopharmaceuticals, and the use of marine organisms as biomedical models are some of the topics presented. Federal policies and organizations focusing on OHH are also explored. Potentially polluting shipwrecks and underwater munitions dumps may also impact human health.

October 21, 2013by maritime maritime No Comments

Historic Shipwrecks – Online Course

Clients: U.S. Naval Academy and Ocean Technology Foundation

Midshipmen aboard the USNS Henson

MMC developed and instructed the U.S. Naval Academy’s first and only online course, Historic Shipwrecks, which focuses largely on the methods, technologies, and policies involved in the Ocean Technology Foundation’s Search for the Bonhomme Richard. The course integrated science, history, technology and engineering into a multidisciplinary and interactive learning experience for midshipmen. Under the tutorship of MMC President Melissa Ryan, five midshipmen participated in the 2010 and 2011 expeditions to search for the Bonhomme Richard in the North Sea.

October 17, 2013by maritime maritime No Comments

Online Learning and Education

Teachers explore online learning.
Photo by C. Dindo

MMC specializes in online education, whether it’s creating a course or workshop from scratch, recruiting participants, or instructing the workshop. We have specific expertise in using the Blackboard and Caucus systems, having created and instructed courses on shipwrecks, oceans and human health, and have supported workshops focusing on various other science topics. The number of participants in these events ranges from a dozen to several hundred, and graduate credit can be offered if desired. Audiences range from undergraduate students to teachers seeking professional development.

Courses have been designed and/or instructed for clients including the U.S. Naval Academy, Goodwin College, Ocean Technology Foundation, and also in cooperation with the College of Exploration and NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.