Sand Creek Science Students Zoom Chat With JOIDES Resolution

New York State Master teacher Stacey Sebert’s eighth grade Earth Science class at Sand Creek Middle School had the unique opportunity to zoom chat with the JOIDES Resolution, a state of the art science research vessel that is off the coast of New Zealand. The ship is currently taking core samples of an underwater volcano. They are the first ever to conduct such research!

Students were given a tour of the ship by fellow educator and Utica native Tammy Orilio, a teacher from Florida who is the science educator onboard the ship. Tammy showed students how they keep the ship in one location for the entire drilling process which takes a long time to complete since the volcano is over 1,300 meters below sea level and they are taking a 1,000 meter core sample.

Students were amazed to learn that they were one of the first people to see some of the core samples that have been collected. They heard from scientists onboard the Resolution about the tests they are doing on the core samples by both geologist and biologists. Students also learned that it takes a lot of people in different fields to run a research vessel such as this — from the captain to the cooks to the scientists to the engineers making and fixing the equipment, just to name a few. The class was able to see the swells of the water and discussed the difference in time and season, being they were in the Southern Hemisphere, where it was 3:30 am and almost winter. Having positive connections and interactions such as this has shown students that science isn’t just someone in a lab coat in a lab — there are lots of incredible opportunities out there for those that are interested in pursuing them.