Lisa Battig: Getting Excited for an Upcoming Adventure… August 18, 2017

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Lisa Battig

Aboard NOAA Ship Fairweather

August 28 – September 8, 2017

Mission: Hydrographic Survey leg IV

Geographic Area of Cruise: Alaska

Date: August 19, 2017

Weather Data from the Bridge (well, from my home city): 33.656311, -117.887800

I haven’t left yet, so I’ll just report on weather here in coastal southern California. It is a fairly typical August day, late morning temperatures in the high 70s, blue skies and a light 4 knot breeze from 235 deg SW. Yes, there is a reason so many people come to live here, but I’m personally ready for the far more extreme temperatures I will get to experience 30 degrees further north and 50 degrees further west!

Science and Technology Log

I have the privilege of being a part of the NOAA Ship Fairweather crew for 10 days. We will be off the coast of Alaska doing hydrographic surveys.  While I don’t totally know what to expect, I know that the end goal is mapping for navigation purposes and that the sonar can give some other information, too. Ultimately, that and other hydrographic survey data can be used to make maps and I LOVE maps. This one below (courtesy of USGS) shows the submarine canyons at the end of the Los Angeles River and the Santa Ana River off the coast of Southern California. It’s so cool to have a visual sense of what you’re surfing, paddling, swimming or fishing over.

So, what I do know about what we’re doing is that we’ll be taking side scan sonar data of an area around Nome, Alaska in the Bering Sea. I know that the ship will be running some predetermined patterns to add to an existent database that was begun with legs I, II, and III of this same mission. The ship, by the way, is the Fairweather – (image courtesy of NOAA)

She’s quite grand and I can’t wait to board and to meet all of the shipboard personnel and learn more about the operations firsthand. I’ll have lots of science and procedure and people to talk about in my next post, I’m sure.

Personal Log and Introduction

Lisa Battig, here! I’ve been teaching at Fountain Valley High School since 2007. Fountain Valley High School is a comprehensive public high school with about 3,800 students. I currently teach Chemistry and Environmental Science there and I love it!  “FVHS” is filled with teachers who are adventurous and willing to try new things. As a result, we’ve always had an administration that is exceedingly supportive of teacher ideas. The culture is collaborative, encouraging and exciting. I could not wish for a better school. Then there are the 3,800 talented young people who walk on campus every day who really make it a fun place to work. Here is an image of me with 64 of them (and lots of parent chaperones!) at Joshua Tree National Park this past January:

So a bit more about me…

I couldn’t tell the story of where I am now without paying homage to the great Bob Perry. You may not have the privilege of knowing Bob, but that man has inspired probably thousands of students over his career. He was my high school marine biology teacher who also was a master dive instructor, owned his own boat, wrote his own plankton keys, did photography on the side, expected his first year students to do real research and read journal articles, taught us DOS commands and some Basic so we could analyze our data on a computer (1987!!), and had his classes out in the field at the local pier weekly taking raw data. Not to mention he had a research permit and kept three enormous saltwater tanks in the back of his room holding local species so we would be familiar with them and kept a wet table in class that I used when I took an independent research course with him during my senior year.

I was challenged by him, certified in SCUBA by him, encouraged by him, directed by him, mentored by him and ultimately owe at least 80% of what I do in the classroom today to him and his methods.

That spark of interest in high school was the impetus for my undergraduate Marine Biology degree. The ocean was and still is one of my greatest passions. In my college years, I was again blessed with a professor who allowed me to help with his research on copepods and who made certain that we had plenty of time in the field doing trawls, dredges, plankton tows and so much more. Sadly, though, with just an undergraduate degree it was difficult to find anyone willing to pay me to sit in the ocean and hang out with dolphins all day. But my program had been broad and garnered me a minor in Chemistry, also. So out of college I went to work as an analytical chemist instead. That later led me into a varied and interesting career in technical sales and then finally into teaching. It was a good place for me to land – and it’s allowed me to indulge my desires to become more involved in Environmental Science. I went back to school for my MS in Environmental Science a few years ago and was able to develop a sanitation and hygiene education program to be used with small communities throughout the world. This is part of the program being used one on one by a volunteer in a village in El Salvador.

I haven’t lost my love of the ocean, nor my love of research. These days, I indulge the former through surfing and offering my AP students the opportunity to get SCUBA certified. Their certification ends with a three day boat trip to dive spots all around Catalina Island. For the research component, I have my AP students develop their own field or lab research and present the findings in a poster session at the end of the school year. I also find whatever research might be available to me through summer programs and the like. I’ve been able to assist in two local university labs through Howard Hughes Medical Institute grants. The experiences have had broad impacts on me personally and definitely on my teaching as well.

(For clarification, I am behind the camera for this Nias Island beauty, not behind the sheet of water. It was the best surf trip of my life! But this one day was a bit too big for me.)

And finally, how I got involved with the NOAA Teacher at Sea program.

My first year of teaching in 2005, I had a mentor who was chosen to be a part of the Teacher at Sea program. His stories immediately sparked my interest in it and I started dreaming about where I might be able to go and what I might be able to do. Unfortunately, each year some challenge would prevent me from applying. Last November, though, all the pieces finally fell into place and I was able to get that application in. Now I find it almost impossible to believe that a 12 year dream is finally coming to fruition! Again, I am so thankful to have a supportive administration that is willing to let me miss some school so that I can bring real world research, application and STEM connections back into the classroom.

Did You Know?

The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 will only cover approximately 28% of the sun in Nome, Alaska where I’ll be embarking. However, on March 30, 2033 Nome will be one of the few land masses to be awarded a total eclipse!