WHOI, Perkins School team up for more accessible science
Falmouth Bulletin
Amy Bower, a senior scientist in the department of Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Kate Fraser, a science teacher at the Perkins School for the Blind, recently embarked upon a 10-day research voyage to the Labrador Sea.
Bower and Fraser set sail from Woods Hole Sept. 19 with the mission to deploy a mooring that will launch floating measurement devices into passing eddies. The research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, will add to the knowledge of global ocean circulation and ultimately contribute to the understanding of climate change.
However, one of the more exciting aspects of the program will be the creation of the OceanInsight Web-based portal which will allow public school students who are blind or visually impaired to participate through curriculum created especially for them. Students will also be able to interact via the Web with Bower, who is also sight impaired.
During the voyage, Bower will communicate with students through the Web site portal and also via voice-to-voice communication and audio postcards, all accessible means of communication for students who are blind or visually impaired. Research data will be compiled throughout the year and students will be able to follow those developments.
Bower and Fraser, who has taught at the Watertown-based school for 32 years, are aboard the Knorr, a WHOI research vessel and the ship whose crew discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
OceanInsight was made possible by a grant from the KeySpan Foundation.
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