Gerty Ward
About
Expeditions:
Ocean Dynamics Beaufort Sea
Occupation:
Teacher
Organization:
Durham Academy
Gerty Cori Ward grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Camping was a family tradition, and she spent summers canoe tripping through Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. She comes from a family with a strong scientific tradition (her grandparents shared the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the biochemistry of carbohydrates), but after graduation from Vassar College with a degree in Economics, she worked in the finance industry. After three years the call of destiny was simply too strong, so she went back to school and earned a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from North Carolina State University. As an adult, after wearing many hats, she became a science teacher to strengthen the connection between scientists in the field and students in the classroom. Ms. Ward now happily teaches middle school science at Durham Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Her classroom motto is, "when in doubt, doubt!" and she hopes to empower her students to look critically at the scientific claims that shape our world.
Gerty Ward's Content
| Title | Type |
Last Updated |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| thermohaline circulation | Vocabulary | 12 December 2011 | |
| Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Web Link | 28 November 2011 | |
| Visit with MS science teacher Gerty Ward in the Arctic | Article | 28 January 2011 | |
| Cool expedition puts teacher on ice in Arctic: DA teacher to study sea changes | Article | 28 January 2011 |
| Title | Forum | Posted |
|---|---|---|
|
Is your Cabin Heated? From the Sketch Family |
Ocean Dynamics Beaufort Sea | July 28, 2008 - 1:42pm |
|
Distance IS deceiving! |
High Arctic Change 08 | July 24, 2008 - 6:00am |
|
Ahoy Jillian! |
Bering Ecosystem Study 08 | July 22, 2008 - 6:40pm |
|
Photo of the day |
Bering Ecosystem Study 08 | July 10, 2008 - 6:54am |
|
Extractor question |
Changing Tundra Landscapes | July 10, 2008 - 6:47am |
|
2 July photo of the day |
Bering Ecosystem Study 08 | July 4, 2008 - 6:35am |
|
ABC News |
Greenland Atmospheric Studies | June 13, 2008 - 12:16pm |
|
Snow Bird |
Greenland Atmospheric Studies | June 12, 2008 - 4:53am |
|
NC Climate |
Bering Ecosystem Study 08 | April 29, 2008 - 6:48am |
|
Comparing Flagstaff and Alaska |
Bering Ecosystem Study 08 | April 15, 2008 - 6:12pm |
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your unending support. Yes, I have really enjoyed blogging, writing the dispatches, on-line journals, whatever you want to call it. However, I am going back to my life in Durham which offers fewer photo ops....{read more}
Hello,
Hmmm, interesting question. Outside, there is little to compare to Durham and DA. The landscape is beautiful yet desolate. All I have seen for the past month is water and ice, punctuated by a few birds and bears! By contrast, Durham is lush, especially in the spring!
On the...{read more}
Good question, Marty! The X in X-CTD stands for expendable. As the device sinks into the water, the data is sent back up the wire to the computer. When the wire runs out at 1100 meters, the X-CTD breaks off and sinks to the bottom. The exterior tube is kept on board and recycled.
Gerty
{read more}Marty,
Being on the ice is quite special and I am pleased that you were able to begin to appreciate the sensation through words and pictures. Yes, it can be cold; however, we are dressed in Mustang suits which are extremely warm -- so warm that some chose to wear less. And working on the...{read more}
Dear Mr. Iroc,
I have been helping out with many different experiments so I get a sense of what the different scientists on board are doing. I was planning to to a position experiment, where I held a compass and a GPS to demonstrate the difference between geographic and magnetic North Pole...{read more}
Dear Mr. Iroc,
The Xuelong or *Snow Dragon* is in the Arctic but its exact track is not available as far as I know. If the ship were to pass nearby, the Bridge would know. In addition, the LSSL is a Coast Guard rescue ship so if any ship was in distress, this ship would suspend its science...{read more}
Hello Sammy!
How is ice thickness measured? Good question! Yesterday I went out onto the ice with Alice Orlich from University of Alaska, Fairbanks. I watched her measure the ice thickness. First she drills a hole with an auger (a giant drill, like what is used to make holes in the ice...{read more}
Johanna,
Thank you for following along. Yours is a good question and I posed it to Brian Hunt of UBC, a scientist on board who is studying the plankton up here. He says that zooplankton populations do not have an effect on the temperature and salinity of Arctic waters. Regarding the types...{read more}
Hello Jillian's class! Thank you for following along. As I post this response, I am also posting my 12 Aug Journal entry about being out on the ice for the last time on this cruise. Attached to this entry are two ice information sheets which you may find interesting. Initially, the helicopter...{read more}
Dear Ivan,
Yes, you can eat the ice up here. Sometimes ice is brought back to the ship to put into drinks! I have seen SO MANY new things on this expedition-- before coming up here, I had never-
been above the Arctic Circle
flown in a helicopter
been on a ship
stood on...{read more}