Jim,
Years ago I ordered a book solely on the basis of it's
title. It was called "How to build an underwater robot". To my surprise,
when I received it the book was written for children, and described how to make
a simple ROV out of PVC components you can get at any hardware store. Well, some
folks were inspired by the book and took it a step further, setting up
the above program for teachers and students to build ROVs as a
classroom project. Neat idea. I wrote to the contact person last night, because
I'm local to them and this could be an ideal outreach opportunity. Imagine they
get kids together who have just built ROVs. What could be more on topic than a
presentation about how to build little subs?
thanks,
Alec
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Hi Jon,
I think your thoughts are exceptional. I know many people have done similar
things in the past and when I'm complete I plan on some of the outreach
ideas.
I happen to be president of our local school board, (bad timing) , and have
an interest in the educational component, but probably even more so the ability
to inspire people to think outside of the box and pursue their dreams.
I think we need to inspire people to go beyound the expected and the status
quo. This is where most good ideas come from.
Best Regards,
Jim K
On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 11:18 PM, Jon Wallace
<jonw@psubs.org>
wrote:
Psubbers,
One
of the areas that I hope we can expand on this year is an "outreach" program
where we expand our interest beyond concentration of fabrication issues and
delve into dive operations, education, and community involvement with our
submersibles. Construction is only one phase of owning a submersible
which when finished inevitably leads to the question "Now
what?"
Because of the uniqueness of our vessels, we have a unique
opportunity to use them for much more than just a short spin under the lake.
As I have mentioned in previous emails as a means of illustration,
backyard astronomers make useful contributions to science and education by
accounting for the vast majority of newly discovered comets, monitoring
variable stars, and tracking asteroids. While the professional
astronomers are using Hubble to unlock the depths of the universe and test
theories of relativity, the backyard astronomers are keeping an eye on areas
of the sky closer to home that their smaller instruments are able to
adequately monitor. Likewise, we also have the ability to make useful
contributions to science and education related to oceanographic study and
underwater environments. While the professionals study tube-worms and
tectonics tens of thousands of feet under the oceans surface in multi-million
dollar submarines, there's a large area of ocean bottom not regularly being
monitored or investigated between 120 and 1,000 feet.
I raise this
issue once again because it has come to my attention that just a few days ago
a conference was held in the Washington DC area sponsored by Aerospace and
Electronic Systems Society with a NOAA representative as the primary speaker,
to cross-pollinate ideas between various agencies and specialties involved
with undersea exploration and research including technical diving and manned
submersibles. I have it on good authority that PSUBS was brought up
during informal conversations by people attending this conference and
discussing the involvement of psubs in programs that further ocean
conservation, science, or education. If realized, this could mean
providing useful contributions to scientific research while at the same time
enjoying your submersible.
This then seems like a good reason, and
time, to bring this topic up once again.
Of course, such oceanographic
research is only one possibility and there are plenty of other opportunities
that you can help with in terms of public outreach. How about sponsoring
a public display of your submersible? Or what about contacting your
local indoor shopping mall and offering to put your sub on display for a week
(roped off of course). Have you ever considered contacting the science
department of your local school and offering to talk about underwater diving
in a submarine, or bringing your sub to the school and explaining how it
works. Trust me, I was a member of the school board for 9 years and
schools LOVE that kind of interaction. Most towns and cities beg to find
participants for parades. The next time your home-town has a parade, why
not sign up and tow your sub down main street (George Kittredge did it in 2008
at the Maine Lobster Festival).
For those of you who own submarines, or
will have a sub soon, please consider this plea for public outreach. In
the past I have merely made an announcement when some group or entity was
requesting a service and waited for one or more of you to respond, however I'm
hoping we can become more proactive starting this year. We have a
"Public Display" web page on our web site to advertise these kind of things
and I would like to invite you to be on it. I'm asking you to look at http://www.psubs.org/pubdisp and consider listing your
availability in whatever capacity you are comfortable with, and I promise that
we will help you with any coordination or support.
For those of you
without submarines, you are still able to contribute by perhaps giving a talk
in your local community or visiting a local school. You could for
example use the DVD "Wally's First Dive" as a multi-media tool and then
provide more detail about how submarines operate and what they can be used
for.
If you can help out with this "outreach" project, please contact
me off-list.
Thank
you!
Jon
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