Shelf-Basin Interactions Research on the Healy Icebreaker 15 May to 23 June 2004 NEW: To track the Healy cruise, click here! The six-week research cruise on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy is part of the Shelf Basin Interactions (SBI) project -- a multi-year, interdisciplinary program to investigate the impact of global change on physical, biological and geochemical processes over the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas in the Western Arctic Ocean. The project is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. The cruise will have a team of over 50 people, including scientists, graduate students, technicians and media observers. They will start in Nome, Alaska, and travel north through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.

This cruise is part of Phase II (2002-2006) of SBI, involving field investigations and modeling of the area that links together arctic ocean shelves and ocean basins -- a region where the greatest responses to climate change are expected to occur. Field sampling on the Healy will include measurements of sediment, ice, water nutrients and oxygen, plankton, organic matter, and sampling of open ocean and sea floor animals.

U.S Coast Guard Icebreaker Science Operations: Learn more about the Healy’s cruise plan here.

U.S. Coast Guard Healy Homepage: For more about the Healy, including the ship’s history, crew, and characteristics, click here.

Shelf-Basin Interactions Homepage: For more about the SBI project, including science plans and public outreach links, click here.

University of Texas Marine Science GK-12 Homepage: Click here to learn more about the NSF’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.

Meet the Teacher: Patty Cie teaches 8th grade integrated science at Yelm Middle School in Yelm, Washington. She has also taught in Olympia, Washington, and been a teacher certification specialist at the Fort Lewis Army Post. Prior to becoming a teacher, she worked as an intertidal field biologist in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Meet the Researchers: Kenneth Dunton specializes in marine botany and coastal ecology at the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Ken’s research focuses on the response of benthic marine plants and estuarine habitats to impacts such as global climate change. Ken and the rest of the SBI team devote considerable time and effort in providing opportunities for interactive exchange between scientists and K-12 students and teachers.

Also working closely with Patty will be Susan Schonberg, research associate at the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, who will be the lead scientist for Patty’s team onboard the Healy.

Craig Aumack is a master’s student at the Marine Science Institute and a previous GK-12 fellow. Craig has extensive first-hand experience bringing marine ecosystems science to K-12 students.

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