Craig Kasemodel is a science and technology teacher at the Central Middle School of Science in Anchorage, Alaska. Mr. Kasemodel attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Montana State University and holds degrees in Economics, International Relations, and Fish & Wildlife Management, and spent several years conducting wildlife biology research in rural Alaska and Montana. Mr. Kasemodel enjoys teaching other teachers how to incorporate technology in their classrooms and introducing students to science. He is active with the ALISON Project and recently developed a freshwater science class for students to conduct water quality and stream assessments. In his spare time, he enjoys building computers and websites, fly-fishing, hiking, skiing, and spending time outdoors with his wife and chocolate lab. He is excited to be part of PolarTREC and to join the crew on the Healy with the hope of increasing awareness of climate change and polar science. Learn more about Mr. Kasemodel at his classroom website.

Lee Cooper, of the University of Maryland, is the chief scientist on the first of several science cruises that will take place aboard the USCGC Healy in 2008. Dr. Cooper organizes the science mission and coordinates the work of approximately 35 other scientists studying sea ice, walrus distributions, sea floor processes, biological communities, water chemistry, and marine mammal and bird observations. Dr. Cooper works at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland. His research specialty is biogeochemistry and he presently studies biological changes in the northern Bering Sea. Dr. Cooper is working with a PolarTREC teacher to share Bering Sea research with the public and K-12 classrooms.

The team will travel on the USCGC Healy to the sampling area in the northern Bering Sea. The Bering Sea lies to the west of Alaska and to the east of Russia. The team will depart from and return to the port of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, which is in the Aleutian Islands. During the cruise they will sample the biologically diverse waters as they move northward toward Saint Lawrence Island.