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Hampshire teachers share excitement of research cruise via Classroom@Sea website

May 17, 2004

Pupils in schools and colleges across the UK and beyond will be able to share the excitement of discovery and routine of daily life on board a scientific research ship when two teachers from Hampshire join a cruise to explore submarine canyons off Portugal.

From 28 May to 12 June 2004 Ian Lewis, Head of Science at Wyvern Technology College, Eastleigh and Elena Fernandez-Lee, science teacher at the Arnewood School in New Milton, will live and work alongside scientists and crew aboard the Royal Research Ship Charles Darwin.

Throughout their stay the teachers will share their experiences by sending daily diaries, reports and photographs to the interactive Classroom@Sea website (www.soc.soton.ac.uk/CHD/classroom@sea) which is hosted by Southampton Oceanography Centre. The teachers and scientists on board will also respond to questions sent in by email via the website.

Ahead of the cruise Ian and Elena have been working with pupils in Year 9 and Year 10 (aged 13-15 years) to design scientific experiments which the teachers will carry out on their behalf. Elena said: 'This is a great opportunity to get them interested in science before they choose their options.

'They have designed a sea sickness chart to see whether there are any patterns between variables such as time of day, how often a person is sick, sea conditions and so on. They have also designed a wildlife card which we will use to record sightings of whales, dolphins, turtles and sea birds.'

Ian said: 'I've been encouraging the students to think about the experimental conditions at sea and to think about different variables. For example, we will send polystyrene cups down to different depths to demonstrate the effects of increasing pressure. We also hope to trawl for plankton and identify what we find.

'We will bring back all the data we collect and plan to publish our results on the Classroom@Sea website over the coming weeks and months.'

Dr Vikki Gunn at Southampton Oceanography Centre is coordinating the Classroom@Sea project. She said: 'The cruise will explore the Lisbon-Setubal canyon which starts just 8 km from the Portuguese shore and plunges to depths of over 5000 metres.

'The aim is to find out more about how sediment travels from the continental shelf down to the deep sea. This knowledge is important for applications such as cable installations and tracking the movement of man-made pollutants, as well as understanding how ancient sedimentary rocks formed.

'One of the key things the team is looking for is evidence of underwater avalanches of sediment that have cascaded down the canyon and out onto the abyssal plain. We will use a variety of scientific techniques, including sediment coring, seafloor imaging using sonar and seafloor videos, to identify places where recent sediment flows have occurred.

'The camera system will also be used to record the biology found in the canyon and how this relates to the type of sediment present.'

The work is being carried out as part of a large European Union-funded research programme called EUROSTRATAFORM which involves scientists from all over Europe.

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton