Summer Outreach Discovery

Scope of Work:

The Prince William Sound Science Center educators have developed a number of oil spill-related activities that we use regularly in our summer and school year education programs, and we believe these “tested” activities are a valuable resource for other education programs in Alaska. We propose to increase the number of participants and geographic area served by educational activities that teach about the effects of oil spills in marine ecosystems, and technology applications in oil spill prevention and response.

The first year of this program will focus on outreach to establish a network of summer education providers and facilitate the integration of our oil spill curricula into their summer programs. At the end of Year 1, we will have established the partnership network and have a clear plan for transition/integration of oil spill activities in partner organization programs for Years 2-5.

Oil spills and their effects on the environment are an important component of our “whole systems” approach to education. We use a number of oil spill-related activities; water and oil experiments; remote-controlled underwater robots; and predicting spill trajectory in mock oil spills. Currently, PWSSC Summer Education programs reach a significant yet geographically limited number of individuals. We request support from OSRI to increase our capacity to expand the geographic area and numbers served by our oil spill and marine science programs.

Our goal, through the Summer Outreach Discovery project and others, is to connect with educators throughout Alaska and build collaborations that facilitate sustainable delivery of fun, engaging and innovative education programs that:

• Increase interest and aptitude in science and technology,
• Build leadership and problem-solving skills,
• Incorporate a strong link between scientists and educators,
• Increase knowledge of global issues through hands-on studies in the local environment,
• Prepare next generation of professionals in STEM fields: educators, resource managers,policymakers, researchers, and community leaders, and
• Leverage a variety of human, material, and financial resources from members, partners, and funders.