The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
Announces Selection of Teachers for Summer 2004
GK-12 Research Experience for Teachers (RET)

The University of Texas Marine Science Institute, as a part of the NSF GK-12 program, has chosen two teachers to spend part of summer 2004 participating with scientists in field research in marine and environmental science. Each teacher will spend six weeks during the summer engaged in intensive field research.


Teachers selected: Paula Fluhrer and Patty Cie.

Rivers of the Peruvian Amazon (Oxapampa, Peru)

Paula Fluhrer with Ph.D student and previous GK-12 Fellow Amy Townsend-Small

Paula teaches chemistry at Dublin Coffman High School in Dublin, Ohio. Prior to becoming a chemistry teacher, Paula worked as a plant engineer for the Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, Michigan.

Description of research: UTMSI has several years of funding to study the role of headwater streams and riparian forests in regulating nutrient loading to the Amazon River. The teacher will spend six weeks working at the university-sponsored field station in Oxapampa, Peru. This is the “base camp” for scientists from all over the world who come to study the Amazon headwaters. Research coming out of the field station ranges from nutrient cycling to ornithology to botany, and there will be myriad opportunities to participate in research projects. In addition, this program provides a unique opportunity to spend six weeks immersed in a different culture.

Arctic Systems Science: The Shelf-Basin Interactions (SBI) Program (USCG ice breaker Healy) Alaska 15 May to 23 June 2004

Patty Cie with past GK-12 Fellow Craig Aumack

Patty 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.

Description of research: UTMSI has received funding that will allow a teacher to accompany scientists on a six-week research cruise on the USCG ice-breaker Healy in summer 2004. The proposed cruise track starts in Nome and travels north through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The purpose of the cruise is to study exchanges between the shelves and basins along the arctic coast in order to assess possible effects of climate change on these delicate ecosystems. Teacher will live and work on the ship alongside scientists from all over the world collecting marine samples for later analysis in the United States. Much of the cruise will be spent breaking through various levels of fast ice and there should be plenty of opportunity to observe migrating whales, walrus, and birds as well as scavenging polar bears.

Keep up with the work aboard the Healy Icebreaker at this web site!

For questions regarding this web site contact susans@utmsi.utexas.edu.
Web site design and development by Ethan Thompson.
This page last updated May 16, 2004