NOAA Teacher at Sea
Patricia Kassis
Onboard Research Vessel Kilo Moana
October 23 – June 10, 2009
Mission: Woods Hole and Hawaii Ocean Time Series
Geographic Region: Hawaiian Islands
Date: May 23, 2008
Science Log
Aloha. I’m Patricia Kassis, a teacher at Parker School on Hawaii’s big island. I’m preparing to board an oceanographic research vessel, the Kilo Moana, pictured, for a science cruise from the 3rd to the 11th of June. For those with a technical interest, the ship’s statistics are located at this SEOST site. The research is part of the WHOTS project, a collaboration between my alma mater Woods Hole (WHOI) and the University of Hawaii. I got involved in this through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has a program, Teacher at Sea, to send teachers out on research cruises. I’ll be working under chief scientist Bob Weller from WHOI, and I understand that the goal of the trip involves maintaining and gathering data from a buoy loaded with instruments (picture at WHOTS). I’m being deliberately vague because I’m clueless, really.
I hope to be able to update this blog regularly from the ship (as I become more clueful, perhaps), but that will depend upon the internet connection quality, so I’ll just wait and see. Check back beginning around the 4th or 5th of June to see if I’ve updated it. If you have questions for me while I’m out there, you can email me at mrskassis@hotmail.com or leave a comment on the blog.