The National Sea Grant College Program has spent the last year recognizing its 50th anniversary. Each month, Sea Grant programs across the country have worked together to create content to highlight Sea Grant successes with a monthly theme.
January’s theme was “K To Gray” education. New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s education program holds a wide variety of programs directed towards advancing greater understanding and stewardship of our state’s marine and coastal resources. Collectively, these programs engage a large and diverse audience of learners. Our K-12 field trip program alone provides instruction to over 20,000 school children annually, taking them out of the classroom and onto the beaches, bays, and estuaries of New Jersey for active learning experiences.
To highlight these programs, the Consortium contributed an article on everything from summer camp to underwater exploration to be featured on the National Sea Grant homepage. The Consortium is also featured in an interactive story map covering education programs across Sea Grant’s entire network of coastal and Great Lakes states.
Check out the story map and read the article below to see how Sea Grant educators work in New Jersey and across the 33 other Sea Grant programs.
Michelle Hartmann, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s water resources specialist (also of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program) has been hard at work this year installing more than 25 green infrastructure projects this fall alone. Most recently, helped NJSGC funded the installation of an 800-square-foot rain garden at Ocean Township High School. Michelle completed this project in partnership with the Whalepond Brook Watershed Association with the assistance of students in the Ocean Township High School Environmental Science club.
“It was an amazing opportunity to visit a very unique country and discuss some of the great things we’re doing in New York and New Jersey in the field of living shorelines,” he notes.
Dr. Miller, also a research associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, delivered a keynote address titled “Living Shorelines in Urban Environments.”
“Equally enlightening from my point of view was learning about Hong Kong’s philosophy on land reclamation and their desire to implement innovative shoreline stabilization approaches that help preserve/restore the marine environment,” Dr. Miller adds.
Dr. Amy Williams was awarded the Rising Star Award at the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association Conference. The Rising Star Award is given periodically to honor an individual ASBPA member who has gone above and beyond for the organization.
Dr. Williams, NJSGC coastal ecosystems extension agent, started participating with ASBPA as she worked on her master’s degree from Texas A&M in 2007. She credits a connection created at an ASBPA networking event in 2014 for her current position at Stevens Institute of Technology.
“Through participation in the ASBPA Coastal Conferences and D.C. Summits, I have gotten to experience so many aspects of coastal work that I would never have received in the classroom,” she notes. “ASBPA has a diverse group of members that have shown me how much collaboration is needed for coastal projects, such as engineers, geologists, biologists and political entities.”
Dr. Williams was awarded for her efforts to engage students and young professionals through social media. She was also recognized for her own time volunteering as well as organizing other volunteers for ASBPA events. She has also worked on the steering committee to for the ASBPA’s 90th Anniversary Coastal Conference in Long Branch, N.J. where she organized an ASBPA field trip to New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium headquarters at Sandy Hook.
“I look forward to continuing my work with ASBPA so I can further interact with professionals in my field and help students and new professionals get more involved,” she adds.
Climate change affects both coastal and inland communities. The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) is a community of practice that unites informal science educators, climate scientists and social scientists to better communicate this crucial science. Diana Burich, K-12 program coordinator, and Mindy Voss, education specialist, were recently accepted into this network. This growing network of informal science educators and climate and ocean scientists aim to work together to help communicate the facts on climate change and the effects it will have on our daily life — from rising seas to extreme weather events — as well as the effects on marine organisms.
From education to research to extension, this year was full of opportunities and accomplishments. You can check out more of what we’ve been up to in our Coastodian archive, but here are just a few of the highlights:
The NOAA/Sea Grant Coastal Management Fellowship provides two years of on-the-job education and training in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students. The program matches postgraduate students with state coastal resource agencies to work on coastal projects proposed by state officials and selected by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management. Deadline to apply is January 19, 2018. For general information on the Coastal Management Fellowship go to: http://coast.noaa.gov/fellowship/.
The NOAA/Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship matches graduate students interested in ocean resources and the national policy decisions affecting them with “hosts” in the Washington, D.C. area for a one-year paid fellowship. Any student, regardless of citizenship, is eligible if enrolled towards a degree in an accredited graduate program. Interested applicants must apply through their local Sea Grant Program. New Jersey applicants are strongly encouraged to reach out to Dr. Peter Rowe or Ms. Claire Antonucci a minimum of one month prior to the state application deadline to provide notification of their intent to apply and request application support. Applicants should also allow sufficient time to schedule an interview at the program’s request. The state application deadline for New Jersey students to submit their final application package to NJSGC is February 23, 2018, 5pm local time. For more information on the Knauss Fellowship go to: http://seagrant.noaa.gov/Knauss.
The NOAA Fisheries/Sea Grant Joint Graduate Fellowship Program in Population and Ecosystem Dynamics and Marine Resource Economics is designed to strengthen the collaboration between Sea Grant and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Fellowship is available to US citizens who are graduate students enrolled in PhD degree programs in academic institutions in the United States and its territories. Fisheries Fellows will work on thesis problems of public interest and relevance to NMFS at participating NMFS Science Centers or Laboratories under the guidance of NMFS mentors. Deadline to apply is January 26, 2018. For general information on the NOAA Fisheries/Sea Grant Fellowships go to: http://seagrant.noaa.gov/NMFS-SG-Fellowship.
Read more about these fellowships and how to apply here.
What exactly is storm surge? What causes it and how is it measured? NJSGC’s educators sought to answer these questions and more in their Understanding Storm Surge lesson plan. This Summer, Claire Antonucci, NJSGC executive director, and Diana Burich, K-12 program coordinator, presented their storm surge curriculum module at the National Marine Educators Association Conference. The module was created by Mindy Voss, education specialist, as a response to the findings of the Coastal Storm Awareness Program. View and download Understanding Storm Surge as well as other curriculum developed by New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium here.
Educators follow along and complete activities included in the lesson plan. Photos by Claire Antonucci.
Join New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Jenkinson’s Aquarium for a special Junior Keepers Underwater Exploration program on August 12 at the Aquarium located on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach. Campers will learn why we explore our oceans and how aquariums play a role in conservation. Find out what happens behind the scene at the aquarium, and work in teams to design, build and deploy a remotely-operated underwater vehicle in one of the tanks. The four-hour program is recommended for ages 11 to 15 and costs $80 per child. Space is limited so do not hesitate to sign up. To register call Jenkinson’s Aquarium at 732-899-1659.
