The students will tour large Oceanographic vessels operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography located at the Nimitz Marine Facility. Depending on the day of their visit, they will see either the R/V Revelle, R/V Melville, R/V New Horizon, or the R/V Sproul, as well as the R/P FLIP and the Autonomous Tethered Vehicle (ATV). ATV is one of the first ROVs designed and used by the Navy. The students will see the vessels' physical science labs and equipment and discuss their classroom projects with scientists.

These field trips are designed to introduce students to various careers in science as well as real labs, science equipment, and cutting edge science research facilities. Scripps Institution of Oceanography is the number one marine research institution in the world and a partner in education outreach. They, along with the Office of Naval Research, are responsible for making these field trips possible. Our tours will be led by Dr. Bruce Apelgate, Associate Director of Scripps; Captain Zoltan Kelety, Marine Superintendent of Nimitz Marine Facility; and/or Dr. Robert Knox, Associate Director of Scripps. We will be going to tour the ships one class at a time so that students have the ability to be in small groups and interact more with the scientists and the facilities. Dates will be posted as they are scheduled.

Photos of the highlights of the tours can be seen in the student Photo Album.

Tour Dates:
(dates to be announced)

Tour Dates:
February 22, 2010 for 7th grade life science

March 2, 2010 one for 7th grade and one for 8th grade

March 9, 2010 two 8th grade climate change tours

The students will travel to the Ocean Institute to spend the day testing their ROVs and to experience the tools of oceanography first-hand. Through these activities they gained a better understanding of the equipment that Mrs. Brice and research oceanographers will use at sea to collect and process the data that will she send samples to them from the her research cruise participation.
Their program was designed by Rick Baker of the Ocean Institute.

Lab - 2 hours
1. ROV testing off the dock: students used their ROVs to map sections of the harbor bottom and draw grids of their sections. The details of these activities can be found can be found in the Activities section of the Science at Sea Curriculum page.
2. Using the Fathometer to map the sea floor of Dana Point Pier.
3. 3-D maps and mapping using "The Globe" in the new map room.
4. Finding and identifying phylum in the Tank Farm.

Boat - 2 hours
1. Students used a commercial ROV to locate a "lost object" on the sea floor off Dana Point.
2. Plankton station using Plankton Net.
3. Water Chemistry using Van Dom Bottles.
4. Sediment Station - using Peterson Mud Grab (students will test Mud Grab they designed for Mrs. Brice to take to sea in Antarctica).
5. Drift Buoy/Measure Current speed plus using Weather Buoy data and student weather data to predict local sea conditions.