I-COOL

http://coseenow.net/antarctica/

Team: Abe Gelb, Christel, Jess,

Team: Chris Filosa Shifa Ahmed,

Ross  Sea Outreach - Christel Jess & Abe

This week,  we just fine tuned our ideas for what we want our outreach website to look like. There were 2 main changes from last weeks plans.

1.) We discussed it with the other outreach groups and agreed that one collaborative outreach website would be best. We want this website to be formatted in such a way that does not segregate out topics so much but offers all of the collective information and lessons we have to offer.

2.)Since not everyone is a scientist, we decided that the lessons on the website should be geared toward that of a 4th-8th grade science level. Higher level material will be available as well for those who are interested.

Hello all,

This week, our task is to begin brainstorming ideas for the outreach website on the Ross Sea. Firstly, we believe that our website should somehow be in correlation with the entire project going on in the Antarctic. That is to say that there should be a general outreach website for the entire project, and the Ross Sea should be able to be selected as an option on that page.

Once selected, we would like the Ross Sea outreach page to act as a virtual blackboard. We want to go beyond just presenting facts and actually  explain the facts being presented. Some of these facts include weather patterns that can possibly affect the gliders, ice conditions, updates about the biology of the area, and the history of the Ross Sea itself. Every separate category will be listed on the left hand side of the website, and when you select something it will show up in the main body of the website. There needs to be a lot of images to go along with the particular category that is being described and links to similar ideas will also be hyper linked in to the text.

To support all of this, video's will be added in where necessary to further help understanding. An example of this would be a video explaining the mechanics of a glider and how it works. The final touch to the website will consist of using appealing colors and having all selectable items organized in such a way that anyone can navigate the site.

Christel, Jess, and Abe

Christel Wakler, Jessica Castoro, Abe Gelb

Our goal this week was to scour the internet for already existing outreach programs going on for the Ross sea. This is our results:

An article written by John Weller about his goal to try to save the Ross Sea’s ecosystem from over fishing and problems caused by man’s actions: www.seaweb.org/getinvolved/oceanvoices/JohnWeller.php

The Last Ocean is a multimedia outreach project that aims to bring the Ross Sea to life and promote conservation efforts in what is perhaps the most pristine open-ocean ecosystem left on Earth. this is an outreach program trying to get the Ross Sea to be a protected area by educating the public about it, especially the dangers of overfishing and whalingYou can also find out more about the project on its Facebook page and on Twitter at LastOcean. http://www.lastocean.com/

Ross sea penguins:

http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/antarctic-projects/ross-sea-penguins/

Ross sea travel guide, just in case anyone wants to visit:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Ross_Sea

Picture of the natural color of the Ross Sea and the Chlorophyll content from NASA:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=37556

Interesting picture showing a phytoplankton bloom under and within the ice shelf in the Ross Sea, with an explanation:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=8517

http://www.nzaht.org/AHT/RSHRP/
this is an outreach program trying to preserve the history of the Ross Sea & the artifacts found there. it's basically trying to preserve the artifacts from the first expeditions to the Ross Sea.

Everyone talks about the coral reefs, or the rain-forest, but what about Antarctica? Well, over the last few years, the polar ice sheets have been mentioned more and more but there is still little public awareness about Antarctica let alone the Amundsen Sea.

Team Amundsen Sea Outreach found two decent sites that talked about the research being done right now.

http://www.ipy.org/ipy-blogs/item/1572-pine-island-bay-amundsen-sea

This website is called the International Polar Year and it has blogs and articles about specific missions and research that is going on in Antarctica as a whole. The article on the Amundsen sea showed how researchers are exploring the marine life near the bottom such as sea urchins, sponges, mollusks, crustaceans, corals, and sea cucumbers (holothurian) to name a few.

http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0292.html

This website is the National Snow and Ice Data Center. This site is focused on the ice sheets of Antarctica and they talk about their survey of the ice and its significance. This site is less of an outreach site, but still talks about what is happening in Antartica.

Since our group is the Amundsen Sea Outreach and there is little know/easily accessible outreach information, it will be our groups mission to start making the research and its significance available and known to the public.  This week we will contact our Amundsen Sea partners that are working on the science data and develop ways to reach out to the public!

Chris Filosa and Shifa Ahmed