PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker, one of 14 teachers nationwide, has been awarded the National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship. This article describes his upcoming National Geographic expedition to the Arctic Ocean aboard its research ship 'Explorer'.
PolarTREC alumni and science teacher Bill Schmoker is taking his second research trip to the Arctic this summer as one of a handful of educators chosen as a Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.
Video created by PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker onboard the International Continental Shelf Survey. This was the first piston core that returned a gas hydrate sample in the core cutter. The hydrate was about 20 feet beneath the sea floor. Once on deck it began fizzing with escaping methane. Gas hydrates turn out to be very widespread throughout the world's oceans
Boat opps aboard the USCGC Healy during the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey, filmed by PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker. Here we see the launch and deployment of the Arctic Service Boat.
Breaking heavy ice in the Canada Basin (northern Arctic Ocean) aboard the USCGC Healy during the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey. In the distance notice the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Louis S. St. Laurent. Filmed by PolarTREC teacher Bill Schmoker.
Deploying an ice buoy from the USCGC Healy in the Beaufort Sea. The buoy drifts with the ice pack and relays its position to a satellite and so can be used to monitor ice movement. Filmed by PolarTREC Teacher Bill Schmoker on the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey.
Conducting a CTD cast aboard the USCGC Healy. Launched from the starboard A-frame, this device measures Conductivity (to determine salinity), Temperature, & Depth and returns water samples from user-selected depths via the array ("rosette") of trippable Niskin bottles. Filmed by PolarTREC Teacher Bill Schmoker on the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey.
Readying the 12-bottle CTD for a cast aboard the USCGC Healy on the 2010 International Extended Continental Shelf Survey. Here the USGS/University of South Florida Arctic Ocean Acidification Study team have replaced one Niskin Bottle with a prototype autonomous high precision spectrophotometric pH meter that continuously records pH values on the trip up & down- note data downloading upon its