Jim,
I had no idea you were involved in education! Here is a link you may
find interesting: http://www.seaperch.org/
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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*From:* owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] *On Behalf Of *kocpnt
tds.net
*Sent:* Friday, January 08, 2010 6:59 AM
*To:* personal_submersibles@psubs.org
*Subject:* Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Public Outreach Program
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
<mailto: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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