Contact: Michele Walker, 919-733-2293, ext. 229

Students to use Internet to visit Coastal Reserve May 9-11

BEAUFORT – The online education program EstuaryLIVE will bring North Carolina’s Rachel Carson Estuarine Research Reserve to classroom computers across the state as students participate in virtual field trips May 9-11. 

The program uses the Internet to transmit live images and sound from the estuary to elementary, middle and high school classrooms. Participating teachers can connect to the trips using an Internet-ready computer and free software. Registration is required. To register or view a schedule, check out the EstuaryLIVE Web site at www.estuarylive.org.

As teachers facilitate the trip, classes identify questions and submit them online to the estuary, where naturalists and scientists answer them. Class sessions are divided into grade levels and topics to provide the appropriate level of general estuarine education.

In addition to online field trips to the Rachel Carson Reserve site, the program will feature sessions on the 100^th birthday of naturalist Rachel Carson, along with topics such as estuaries, sea turtles and rip currents. The reserve now bears Carson’s name because Beaufort was one of her favorite places to escape and conduct research. Carson died in 1964 but would’ve turned 100 on May 27.    

This year’s program will also celebrate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 200^th anniversary.

To prepare for the EstuaryLive electronic field trips, teachers and students can use the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Estuary Discovery Kit for high schools. The kit may be downloaded from NOAA’s Web site, http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/estuaries/welcome.html.

For more information, visit the EstuaryLIVE Web site at www.estuarylive.org, or contact Coastal Education Specialist Amy Sauls at amy.sauls@ncmail.net.

###