Home | Archived February 20, 2019 | (i) |
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CMG and WRD Collaborate to Host Regional Winners of National Ocean Sciences Bowl
A team of high-school students who placed third in the Northern California Regional competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl was treated to a morning on San Francisco Bay last April 23. Signed up as USGS Volunteers for Science, teacher Jack Dyer and four of his students from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., boarded the Water Resources Division's Research Vessel Polaris and assisted WRD and CMG scientists in deploying instruments and processing samples of San Francisco Bay mud.
WRD uses the Polaris mainly for studies in San Francisco Bay. The Division has generously provided boat time to CMG scientist Mary McGann, who studies foraminifera introduced into the bay mud. When a representative of the Ocean Sciences Bowl contacted CMG about hosting a winning team, Mary approached her WRD colleagues and the response was enthusiastic. Co-captains Byron Richards (WRD) and Scott Conard (WRD) ran the Polaris during the morning cruise. Brian Cole (WRD) demonstrated the system he uses to study water quality in the bay. Francis Parchaso (WRD) collected a variety of sediment samples, and the students got their hands in the mud to help Cindy Brown (WRD) collect specimens of the introduced clams that she and Francis study. They also helped sub-sample cores of bay mud that Mary McGann and Rendy Keaton (CMG) will use to study the introduced foraminifera. Helen Gibbons (CMG) and Tooki Campione (long-standing USGS volunteer) were aboard as USGS outreach representatives. Later in the day, Tooki gave the students and their teacher a tour of the Menlo Park campus. The USGS was one of several institutions that hosted winners of the regional competition, held last February at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The finals were held April 11-12, in Washington, D.C., with USGS as a co-sponsor.
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North East Mapping Organization Atlantic Offshore Minerals Assessment ![]() |
Home | Archived February 20, 2019 |