Roosevelt Middle School Students Present Summer Learning at the Ocean Explorium

The Ocean Explorium will host two presentations by Roosevelt Middle School students on Thursday, August 5, 2010.  One group of students will show a Power Point presentation of their experience building and operating a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV).  The other presentation will be the performance of a play written, directed and performed by students.  Based on lessons from the program "Voices of the Sea", the students will act out the lives of local marine animals.

The ROV camp began as an after-school program in partnership with the Naval War College of Newport, R.I.  Students researched their projects and worked on the vehicles throughout the school year.  During this summer's camp they completed the ROV's through M.I.T.'s Sea Perch program and tested them while at sea aboard Project Oceanology's vessel, the Enviro-Lab III.  Project O staff brought along their own ROV, equipped with a camera, enabling the students to see the bottom of Buzzards Bay and the diversity of marine life there.  Learning about local eco-systems and connecting students to the environment were two of the program's goals.

These two five-weeks-long immersive programs included classes at the Middle School and Ocean Explorium, field trips to the beach at Fort Taber and voyages on the research vessel Enviro-Lab III, as well as reading and hands-on learning projects.  While these educational experiences involved Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (the STEM subjects), play writing, costume and set design introduced Arts to the program (thus, creating STEAM or TEAMS).  The ROV and "Voices of the Sea" programs are supported by a STEM Grant through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

These two presentations are free of charge and will be offered on Thursday, August 5, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm.  The Ocean Explorium is pleased to host these presentations and congratulates the Roosevelt Middle School students for a job well done!

For more information, contact Abbey Spargo at aspargo@oceanexplorium.org, by calling 508.994.5400, or you may visit the Ocean Explorium website at www.oceanexplorium.org.