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In 2004, researchers at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) partnered with scientists at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) to develop SeaMaven, a prototype virtual learning environment for studying the marine ecosystem. SeaMaven is a web-based application that was designed to enable middle school science students to actively engage in collaborative learning in the environmental sciences. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this program provides students with access to a real-time observational network of platform-based sensors for monitoring oceanographic and meteorological processes. The sensor data is made available by SkIO scientists through the South Atlantic Bight Synoptic Offshore Observational Network (SABSOON), a program originally funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). SeaMaven provides direct access to the SABSOON data and includes nine learning activities that were designed to enhance student understanding of the marine environment and provide a context within which that environment can be seen as an integral part of the global ecosystem. Further development of SeaMaven will be realized through the effective application of existing and emerging technologies by focusing on the following areas: • Include buoy data from the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS); • Presentation of the real-time data stream through event monitoring of the SABSOON tower environment. Two- and three-dimensional animations will provide visual feedback that reflects current conditions at the tower sites, mirroring weather and sea-state activity based upon sensor readings such as barometric pressure; wind speed and direction; temperature, precipitation, relative humidity and wave height and period. The combination of a real-time animated data display and targeted informal learning activities will serve to inform student understanding of the experience by challenging them to reference previously acquired knowledge in other subject areas; • Divers at Gray’s Reef will use HD video cameras to conduct “virtual guided tours” of the live bottom habitat in the sanctuary. The HD video will be streamed directly to classrooms on the mainland, allowing students to participate in live videoconference chats, during which they can ask questions about the reef ecosystem as they watch the divers explore the reef in real time. At least two divers will participate in each tour – one to serve as camera operator and the other as subject matter expert. Support staff aboard a NOAA research vessel moored above the reef will monitor the two-way communications and audio/video feed and record the interaction for later broadcast. The tours will be presented as interactive stories or vignettes on reef life, and a script will be written for each tour ‘episode’ that outlines the topic(s) to be covered during the dive and the talking points and camera blocking necessary to capture the event. Each tour will be recorded and archived and the video from the sanctuary-end of the conversation, along with the audio from both the sanctuary and classroom sources, will be edited in post-production to tighten it up for eventual uploading to a land-based streaming video server for asynchronous viewing; • Installation of an underwater HD video camera that can be remotely operated by students from either a classroom or home computer. The camera will be attached to a submerged cable that guides it in along a course parallel to live-bottom reef habitat in an area directly adjacent to Gray’s Reef. Students will be able to move the camera along the cable and pan, tilt, and zoom the image by manipulating onscreen camera controls via a browser-based interface. The location of the ‘cable-cam’ will be chosen by selecting an area where interesting activities commonly occur – such as a fish cleaning station or a moray eel den. Early tasks in this effort will focus on developing design specifications for the hardware and software required to operate and maintain the underwater camera system and acquiring the equipment needed to install it on the ocean floor. Once the system is installed and the web interface developed, testing and evaluation can begin prior to rolling out the fully functioning system for user testing;

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