RITAS Expeditions

Follow us on the Map

Teacher(s):

Todd Hilgendorff

This is a map showing the grid our ship is following. Each number represents a stopping point where we collect data using the CTD. In between each station, we use the UCTD to collect more data. We started at station 31. We worked our way down to 36, over to 25, and then back up. We are currently around station 27. We will continue following this path until we reach all of the stations. That will conclude the first portion of data collection called High Resolution. After that, we will follow a larger grid that covers more area. Will post that graphic when we get there. So, follow us as we get to each station! I’ll try to keep you up to date as to what station we are at!

Day 6

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

We woke up to find that we were almost reentering Narragansett Bay! It was nice to see the Newport and Jamestown bridges along with calmer seas!

The crew did a great job of safely docking the ship back at the URI Bay Campus.

We cleaned our rooms and the science labs. We had to pack up our equipment and bring it back to the science labs once we docked.

Each watch team did a "freestyle" challenge demonstrating what they had learned on the ship. My team did a funny skit about 3 crustaceans who were good friends.

Day 5

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

During the night the waves reached 8 feet. We had trouble sleeping because we were bouncing and rolling around all night long. The blankets were falling off! The boat was bouncing around like crazy!

It is still pretty rough, but not as bad as during the night. We did our last two handheld CTD scans. The equipment has been cleaned up and put away. We are preparing to return home tomorrow morning.

During the morning, I took the scientists' real data and made student activities which I will share with the students when I get back to school. Click here to download the activities. The activities are based on the averages of salinity and water temperature found at the surface and at the bottom of the Rhode Island Sound.

During our last night shift,after we finished all of our work, we made a bowling game with paper cups and duct tape wrapped around some paper and bolts. It isn't easy bowling on a moving ship!

Day 4

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

We started our 8 am shift by looking at crab larvae and shrimp larvae. Kristina identified the creature by looking in the microscope, finding one interesting creature and isolating it. She then put that one creature under the microscope alone and used guidebooks to identify the animal.

At 9 am, the scanfish hit something, turned upside down and fell to the bottom of the ocean. The Captain stopped the ship. The technicians, mechanics and scientists all worked together to recover the scanfish. The scanfish has a crack, some dents and was filled with mud and sand. The scanfish was cleaned out. The technician, Dave, checked the scanfish inside and out and looked at his computers to see if the scanfish could be put back into the water. Dave replayed the scanfish's journey through the water using his computer. He was able to see that it ran into something like a ghost line and went falling down to the bottom of the ocean. It dragged along the bottom. Dave decided that it was safe to put the scanfish back into the water. So we did. It collected more data for the scientists to analyze.

Dan, Chris, Kristina and I plotted graphs showing when the high and the low tides were. We wanted to know what the tide was while we were collecting salinity and temperature data.

At the end of our shift, our watch team had to present what we had learned to the head scientists on the cruise. We showed them our data and graphs. We also performed a play demonstrating how the tides move more west at high tide and more south at low tide near Narragansett Bay.

The beginning of our 2nd shift today brought lots of rain and 6 ft waves knocking on the porthole windows! It is very hard to walk around the lab. The Captain is concerned about the technicians and the scientists being able to get the scanfish back on the boat with all the waves and the wet deck. We may have to take it out early and not collect as much data as we had hoped.

Day 3

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

We started our 8 am shift by putting the scanfish in the water. We are off the coast of Charlestown, RI. The scanfish will collect data for us for about 5 hours while we head towards Block Island.

The scientific tools have been collecting data for over two days now. We are looking at the data gathered from different points in Rhode Island Sound. We are learning that the saltiest water is in a canyon, where the water is the deepest. The freshest water that we have found so far is right off of Block Island. We noticed that the warmer water is near the coast. The warmer water is less salty.

Kristina and Dan just helped me to answer your questions that were sent to me in an email. Be sure to read the Questions and Answers section of the blog.

During out night shift, I learned to tie a bowline knot and a square knot. I also learned that a flowmeter is a tool with a counter and a spinning tail. It fits inside the Tucker Trawl Net and it counts how many times the tail spins. This tells the scientists how fast the water flows through the net. The scientists also use weights to slide down the wire to open the Tucker Trawl nets. There are 3 nets and they open one at a time. There is also an interesting tool that looks like a half sundial that measures the angle of the wire that is dragging the Tucker Trawl Net.

Day 2

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

At 8 am, my watch started with recording the data from the computers (there have to be about 25 computers on the ship!).

At 10 am, we deployed the scanfish. The scanfish is remotely operated. Dave showed Dan and I how to safely release it into the water without getting hurt, or destroying the equipment. This piece of equipment is much like the one that Mr. Jerry showed us outside during our field trip. The scanfish on the Endeavor is bigger. It can be controlled by a computer from inside the boat. There are video cameras showing the scanfish's cable. That helps the operator too. The scanfish collects data from different depths of the ocean. It measures conductivity which gives us the salinity levels in the water. It measures the temperature of the water. It also measures the chlorophyl fluorescence which measures the clarity of the water. The scanfish software records data and is saved to a computer inside the ship. The scientists will have this data to study when they get back to their labs.

At the end of the watch, Kristina, Dan and I shared the data that was collected with the next group of scientists. We discovered that the water temperature at the bottom of the ocean is between 3 and 5 degrees celsius colder than the water at the surface of the ocean. We noticed that the salinity is higher deeper in the ocean.

During our 8 pm to 12 am watch, we deployed a handheld CTD (conductivity, temperature depth) tool. This tool drops to the bottom with a long rope and is pulled up to the boat. The equipment collects more data for the scientists. The scientists use all the data to draw conclusions about different places in Rhode Island Sound.

Day 1

Teacher(s):

Susanne Warburton

7:50 am I boarded the ship and had breakfast. Amanda and Michael are the best cooks! I met the scientists, the crew and some college students from The URI Graduate School of Oceanography. I learned that I have to be on watch with my team twice a day. My first watch is 8 am until 12 pm and my second watch is 8 pm until 12 am. A watch is the time when you are responsible for working on the ship with the scientists.

At 9:00 am, the ship set sail and we had a safety meeting. We watched a video that showed us how to keep safe on the ship and what to do if there is an emergency. We went outside and learned how the life boat works.

Saturday was a busy day. We took turns copying the data that the ship's scientific tools collect into a journal log. We wrote down the J Day, the time (GMT), the latitude and longitude, the air temperature in degrees celsius, the salinity and the depth of the ocean water. We deployed scientific equipment to collect data from the ocean. Before putting some of the equipment into the water, the scientists put vaseline and chili pepper onto it to keep organisms from settling on it.

The data that the scientists are collecting consists of water temperature at different depths of water. The water can be as deep as 53 meters. The scientists are measuring the conductivity of the water which tells the salinity level; just like you use the conductivity meter to measure salinity at the marsh. We measure salinity in ppt (parts per thousand) and the scientists on the Endeavor measure salinity in psu (practical salinity units).

The scientists are also studying the currents. They want to know how the water from different places mixes together. They want to know which parts of Rhode Island Sound are the most salty and which parts are the least salty. They want to learn why. They want to learn how the water mixes from the ocean, rivers and different bays, like Narragansett Bay.

Twice today, the scientists used a Tucker Troll Net to catch krill, fish larvae and plankton. This is like the plankton net that Mr. Jerry showed us. One of the catches was done close to midnight and we caught creatures called ctenorphores that were bioluminescent. That means that they give off light. These are like jellyfish. The scientists find the jellyfish annoying because it makes it harder to find the fish larvae that they want to study. They will take these samples back to their labs on shore and investigate them further.

Mid-Atlantic Blight II

Teacher(s):

Nina Rooks Cas

Daily Logs

Day 1: Arrived at the ship, saw a video (not nearly as scary as the one I had to watch before going to work for NOAA for the two years I spent at sea - that one had all sorts of people losing body parts from standing in the wrong place with regards to lines and machinery), and finally got under way. Somewhat rough seas, which was fine by me. I like watching the waves crash over the rails. The woman from the coast guard never made it, so I get a room to myself, even!

Day 2: Still just steaming along, too rough to do any work. Made friends with the bridge watch, so I spend the watch up there with them, so long as I'm not supposed to be doing anything else. Bruce is the Captain's Mate (? Second in command - I can never remember specific titles), and Paul is the deck hand. He is also a fisherman, when the URI ship is not running. Also got a tour of the engine room - even louder than I remember on the NOAA ships. The engines are actually oversized for the ship, which may be why they are so loud. The ones on the Discoverer were undersized.

Day 3: Finally had some work to do - we did water testing with the same type of contraption that we used in NOAA - the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth). Got nice and wet. Have I mentioned the amazing food on this ship?! Wow. I think I'll gain poundage for sure. Paul has me eating an icecream sandwich every midnight to 4am shift, and I have to keep myself from going up for seconds at meal times. The nice thing about not being a "real" bridge watch person is that I don't have to relieve the 4-8 shift person for dinner. I did that for 2 years. Kind of nice to just be done until midnight.

Day 4: More CTD work, not so wet though since it's stopped raining.

Day 5: Not sure if it counts as today or yesterday, but we finished the CTD collecting at night (my watch is the 12-4 watch). Running tow lines now with the fish.

Day 7: I can see the lights of Atlantic City, and my cell phone works! Definitely have a love/hate relationship with technology. Called my husband, apparently I missed a great storm at home. I knew I would - haven't been able to use my snow shoes since I bought them.

Day 9: Was shown some of the data that has been collected so far. We've put the fish in a bunch of times now. Dave is going to put it on my computer when we are steaming back to port, though I'm not sure I'll really use much of it with my students. I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding all of what it means, so I'm sure they will as well. But it is *very* cool looking, with all sorts of color graphics and everything. If nothing else, it will look impressive on the classroom wall.

Day 10: Heading back. Paul is going to see if he can arrange for me to work with him on a fishing boat over the summer, since the Endeavor won't be used for the most part between July and mid-Sept. I think. And it turns out Bruce is married to my old Spanish teacher at Marblehead Junior High. Small world!

Day 11: What a beautiful ride back into port. I think I definitely got the best photos of everyone - Jay (deckhand as well) asked me to burn a cd for him - he makes postcards and sells them at the Wickford Arts Festival. I don't even care if he shares any profits with me (he said he would, but honestly how much could it be?), I just want my name identified as the photographer - I think I could make a good side business as a travel photographer!

A Change in Weather

Teacher(s):

Scott Dickison

Thankfully the first day was near ideal conditions at sea. Most of the critical work was accomplished then. As the cruise continued, there was a huge change in the weather which made data collection much more difficult, and got to the point of where our data unreliable. Ultimately the cruise was cut short, but only after some very valuable information was gathered.

The crew was mostly old salts; they were hardly affected by the conditions at sea. They were very helpful to the scientists and tried to assist however they could to provide for the best use of the time spent at sea. It can be a challenge to be in the poor conditions that the seas throw at you, but the science must go on. It was a very rewarding experience.

Reflections

Teacher(s):

Amy Lloyd-Rippe

The Teacher-At-Sea program certainly offered me the opportunity of a life time! With my background in theatre and as an elementary teacher, it is highly unlikely that I would ever have had the chance to join with scientists and assist them in their endeavors (pun intended.) I thank the URI Teacher-At-Sea program and the faculty and staff of Meadowbrook Waldorf School for supporting this experience. I was the only non-scientist on the cruise, although I was not the only new member learning the ropes. There were 6 scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and 7 assistants focused on returning with about 180 core samples from the ocean floor from Maine to Bay of Fundy, in addition to water samples of those sites, and water samples from the near bottom and far bottom of 18 sites.

We were at sea for eleven days and out of site of land for about half the time. The combination of continually rocking seas and a disjointed daily schedule created a sense of being out of "time." We all knew the date of the day, but not necessarily the day of the week! Our logs all recorded Greenwich Mean Time, so the next day always started at 8:00 p.m. for us.

This was the 5th year for these Cyst Cruises, and the data has been compiled to create computer models hopefully predicting the severity of red tide blooms for the following fishing season. Last year, they correctly predicted the type of season, enabling the fishing industry to plan accordingly. The Woods Hole team is striving to increase accuracy of these predictions, but the seas and the phytoplankton still hold many mysteries for them. At this time, there are still questions about the life cycle of the Alexandrium Fundyense, beyond the basics, making it difficult to account for the distribution of these dinoflagellates and to predict their toxicity. This area of the sea, both near shore and off shore, is complex and they are trying to work with many variables in developing a computer model of the bloom dynamics. If successful this year, the fishing industry would receive advance notice of a toxic bloom and be able to harvest their shellfish before the bloom, or to work in another region of the sea.

Working on the RV Endeavor gave me an insight into scientific methods, the questions that drive people to become scientists, and the work habits and systems necessary to carry out this work. I was inspired by the quest to answer questions about this mysterious, and major, region of our planet. I also came away recognizing the importance of our work encouraging students to keep an open mind, explore new ideas, to be accurate in everything they do and record, and to be observant of the complexity of the world around us.