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The Ocean Alliance's Voyage of the Odyssey:
Evolving in Step with the Demands of the Classroom
You're invited on board the Ocean Alliance's 93-foot sailing ketch, Odyssey, for a five-year global science journey to learn about the health of the world's oceans -- particularly the concentrations of human-generated, synthetic pollutants--through close study of the great whales.
The Voyage of the Odyssey, located online at pbs.org/odyssey/, and the experience of the Ocean Alliance scientists and educators on board have been instrumental in developing educational initiatives that not only teach the facts of science, but also impart to teachers and students the adventure of science. Each day, Ocean Alliance is refining its research and educational programming to make it more useful to teachers and students in this new age of standardized testing and education reform. One of our main aims is to make the necessary changes without losing any of the excitement and fun that are the trademarks of Ocean Alliance's educational endeavors.
Enhancing a Science and Math Curriculum
We study not just whales, but whole oceans! The Odyssey, Ocean Alliance's sea-going whale and ocean laboratory, has pursued a strong educational component from its inception. During the entire five-year voyage, we have posted daily Odyssey crew reports online from the boat along with photos, film clips, data on whale sightings, and the other extraordinary marine phenomena we encounter.
The Odyssey has been at sea for more than 1,000 days, and has traveled over 27,000 miles, while more than 700 days remain in this installment of the Odyssey's mission. The length of the voyage and the unique environments and phenomena we are encountering each day give rise to an enormous amount of scientific data, content and education-by-interaction-tools that make our program different, keep it changing constantly and thereby keep it engaging.
On the voyage Web site, we report daily on issues related to:
- Ocean Currents
- Conservation issues
- Environmental management/fisheries
- Mathematics
- Bathymetry/Ocean floors
- Weather and Climate studies
- Diversification of flora and fauna
- Food webs/chains
- Communications - Marine mammal and human
Because we are constantly reporting on our travels to little-known regions and our encounters with new and unusual wildlife, and because we upload our reports directly from the boat to the Web site, teachers and students can be assured that each time they log on to join the Odyssey and her crew, that new and informative adventures await them.
The key to the educational approach we take at Ocean Alliance is that learning and discovery happen best when they happen together. Today, in successful science classrooms across the country, there is a consensus that the best way to engage children in science is to involve them in real research. In order to be rewarding to both student and teacher, science education programs must tap into a child's innate sense of adventure. Our ability to share pictures, videos and data in real time, and to make available our wealth of teacher-friendly information, opens new opportunities for students to participate in cutting edge research about one of the world's most charismatic animals, the giant sperm whale, and the deep ocean environment it inhabits.
The PBS Odyssey web site is a treasure trove of scientific, technological and geographic information. For example: Roger Payne's account of a stowaway hermit crab named Jarvis, so named because he stowed away on Odyssey at Jarvis Island, leaves children so amused they don't notice how much biology, geography, and ecology they are learning. Another example: A video captured by the Odyssey's bow camera of a group of squid feasting on a school of fish they had herded into a ball, is riveting. After describing how the squid are feeding, Odyssey Captain Iain Kerr remarks, "The whole crew watched this drama unfold on the television screen in the salon; the squid eating their dinner, as we ate ours... Now that we have seen the squid eat fish, we want to see the squid meet their predator -- the sperm whale." This very concrete demonstration of predator-prey relationships offers an engaging starting point for teaching a basic and important biological concept-food pyramids. That same few minutes of video discusses the technology of camera lenses, the upwelling of the ocean near the continental shelf and its effects on ocean creatures, trash in the ocean, and, of course, geography. All of this information is conveyed with humor, a sense of adventure, and a human touch without sacrificing accuracy or in any way "dumbing-down" information.
Beyond Science Education
It is important to note that the relevance and impact of Ocean Alliance's education effort reaches beyond science and mathematics to geography, social studies and other areas of human interest. The intended consequence of this is enlightened, energized students and teachers at each of Odyssey's ports of call resulting from interactions between local inhabitants and Odyssey's on-board education specialist. In Papua New Guinea, OA's educational program caused waves throughout the island's society and resulted in a major extension of its protected areas: the declaration of a one and a quarter million square mile marine sanctuary for whales. Throughout North and South America, there are leaders in conservation science and policy as well as master teachers who began their careers as interns or as students with Dr. Payne. Ocean Alliance recruits scientists with a talent for engaging people in the excitement of their research-a knack for eliciting a deep curiosity and taste for learning about the ocean world and its inhabitants. Our next main challenge is a natural outgrowth of our past success: we want to make Ocean Alliance reach a much wider audience by extending its ports of call to classrooms throughout America.