Educators in UMES Extension’s 4-H STEM program have continued to provide area youth with ways to experience STEM topics despite the challenges of the pandemic. Brad Hartle, an agent associate with the program, recently partnered with the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education’s Next Generation Scholars Program in delivering an educational series, “An Introduction to Marine Science and a Look into Marine Biology,” to 20 students in grades eight-12.
“The primary focus of the four-part series was to introduce youth to the world of marine science and the career paths connected to it through virtual activities and experiments,” Hartle said. “In a year filled with virtual learning, the goal was to make the real-time demonstrations seem as if the students were in the same room doing them themselves.”
Participants saw an experiment on sea level change and explored shark biology during the first lesson that introduced them to marine biology. In the following lesson, “Buoyancy and Density in the Marine World,” they learned how different marine animals regulate their buoyancy in the open ocean by making a Cartesian (density) diver, Hartle said.
“We explored the impacts that density and buoyancy have in the marine world and how humans have used that information in their own technology, such as SCUBA diving,” he said.
One of the favorites according to a high school junior was the lesson on anatomy. “I really loved it all, but my favorite was the squid dissection,” she said. “I can see myself studying this in college.”
The series culminated with an exploration of ocean currents, marine nearshore ecology and coral reef ecology. Hartle demonstrated in a real-time experiment how ocean currents work and how water temperatures and salinities play an important role in those currents. He also discussed the succession of organisms in nearshore environments, including sponges and seagrass, and pointed out the different types of coral and the importance of coral ecosystems and the current threats to their health.
