Award Dates: December 13, 2010 — December 17, 2010
PI: Beth N. Orcutt (Aarhus University)
Advisor: Bo Barker Jørgensen (Aarhus University)
Two years ago, we reported to Current readers about a novel ship-to-shore education and outreach program called the “Adopt-A-Microbe” (AAM) project (Orcutt et al. 2011). AAM focused on raising awareness of microscopic life—“microbes”—living in the deep marine subsurface to middle school audiences while engaging them in the science of the ocean-drilling program, both fundamental components of the Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) mission. The AAM project was originally designed as an interactive set of web-based activities to be done in real-time in coordination with a research expedition, involving on-going interactions with scientists at sea.