Hi! My name is Virginia Warren. I teach 5th Grade math and science at Breitling Elementary School in Grand Bay, Alabama. I have been a teacher for 6 years. I am currently in the process of going back to graduate school at the University of South Alabama to get my Master’s Degree in Instructional Design and Development.
I am set to fly out of Pensacola, Florida this coming Thursday morning. I will have a short layover at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.Then, I will be off again to Seattle, Washington where I will stay the night before finishing my journey the next day. I am excited about getting to spend even a short amount of time in Seattle because I have never been on the West Coast of the United States. I plan to get as much sight seeing in as possible before my flight to Anchorage, Alaska the next morning. Once I get to Anchorage, I will catch another plane to Kodiak, Alaska where I will rendezvous with the rest of the science crew and the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson on Saturday.
This will be my second NOAA Teacher at Sea opportunity. In the summer of 2013 I participated in a sea scallop survey on the Research Vessel Hugh R. Sharp. As a teacher this experience has become invaluable to me because it made scientific research come alive to me in way that I had never been able to express to my students prior to this experience. I am extremely excited about having a second opportunity to travel the world and learn about real data research. I am also excited to be able to share this trip with my 5th grade students back home in Grand Bay, Alabama.
I will spend about 2 weeks aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson participating in an acoustic-trawl survey to estimate pollock abundance in Shelikof Strait.