NOAA Teacher at Sea
Sam Garson
Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow
September 6–25, 2024
Mission: 2024 Fall Bottom Trawl Survey
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northeast Atlantic Ocean
Date: September 2, 2025
Weather Data from Friday Harbor, Washington
Latitude: 48.52°N
Longitude: 123.02637°W
Wind Speed: N 0 MPH
Air Temperature: 12°C (53°F)
Introduction
Hello, my name is Sam Garson and I am thrilled to be a part of this year’s cohort of Teachers at Sea! I teach science and CTE STEM courses at Friday Harbor High School (FHHS) on an island off the coast of Washington State named San Juan Island. I teach AP Biology, AP Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Computer Science A, Robotics, Electric Vehicle Principles, Project Management and 3D Design and Fabrication… rural science education is no joke, folks.
I have been involved with education for 20 years now in roles from a substitute teacher in Miami, Florida to an education programs coordinator with a program not so dissimilar from the NOAA TAS program. In my current role as a rural remote educator, I push students to think about the world in terms well beyond their trips to “America” (the mainland), and instead adopt a “Glocal” perspective of thinking globally and acting locally.
Teaching science is something that I am incredibly passionate about, and I have worked hard to help my students realize the amazing STEM pathways that exist in today’s world. Especially now in my rural community, I want my students to see STEM as the gateway to a world economy desperate for their creativity, ingenuity and problem-solving skills. I strive to bring the real world into my classroom and allow my students to try and solve the issues they see in the world around them and ask BIG questions of what could be.
This past year, students from FHHS found themselves designing a radiation sensor for a NASA and World View high altitude balloon mission while being named State Finalists for Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow Challenge.
I am thrilled to be able to show students a piece of the world that many of them have probably never thought about, and share with them the excitement of real world research, data collection and all the amazing technology, teamwork and collaboration among a host of different STEM careers that go into making this sort of survey possible.
Science and Technology Log
In just a few days time, I’ll be lucky enough to be back at sea aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow sailing out of Newport, Rhode Island. The Bottom Trawl survey operates along the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf, sampling at stations from Cape Lookout, North Carolina to Canada’s Scotian Shelf (NOAA Fisheries). This survey is actually the longest running of its kind in the world! There are more than 60 years worth of data from these surveys. Given the dynamic nature of climate change and ocean acidification, this data is needed more than ever.
The amount of cooperating technology, science and engineering that goes into a mission like this is truly incredible. I’m excited to be in a position to share the people, science and data that we collect over the next three weeks.
Personal Log
This cruise is an exciting and slightly strange one for me to participate in due to a few interesting coincidences. The first one that struck me was that I am a graduate of Henry B. Bigelow Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts. A name that, unless I have forgotten, the significance of was never revealed to me as a student there.
Perhaps the most striking coincidence with this cruise is the return to Rhode Island. As a new teacher in Seattle, Washington 15 years ago, I was one of the inaugural members of the Ocean Exploration Trust’s Teacher at Sea program. I had participated in a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research program earlier that year and was alerted to this new opportunity by a colleague. What followed was 7 years of work with the Ocean Exploration Trust helping to take students and teachers out to sea on the E/V Nautilus.
That time in my career was incredibly transformative and the educational tools and values I developed there have been central to my pedagogy as a teacher in the 9 years since I left and returned to the classroom in Friday Harbor. I have tried to show my students how far and wide STEM can take you and all the different stories of people in those STEM fields.
I am thrilled to return to sea with a very different type of expedition. Exploration is a key aspect of our understanding of the world’s oceans, but this opportunity to be a part of a longitudinal study to help understand the ecosystems and fauna present on the Northeast Coast is one that I am thrilled to be embarking on.
Did You Know?
Despite being the home of the Southern Resident Orcas, Orcas Island in the San Juan Archipelago is actually named for Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas who sent an expedition to the islands in 1791!