Stacey Klimkosky (TAS 2009) and Megan O’Leary (TAS 2007), two New England Teacher at Sea alumni from Truro Central School in Truro, Massachusetts, received a mini-grant from the Cape Cod 5 Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation in order to partner with NOAA oceanographer, Jim Manning, to track the pathways for water particles across the North Atlantic with student-built, fisherman-deployed, satellite-tracked drifters.  

Ms. Klimkosky and Ms. O’Leary were honored on January 10, 2013, by the Cape Cod Five Charitable Foundation Trust at their 13th annual Mini-Grant reception that recognized local teachers who received awards this year. The foundation received 148 applications in 2012. It awarded grants for 73 projects from 99 teachers in 41 schools at the reception.

Ms. Klimkosky and Ms. O’Leary’s Ocean in Motion Project seeks to engage students and expose them to the fact that the ocean does move. Following the daily or weekly course of these buoys will allow students to have a better understanding of how pollutants and trash placed in our ocean moves from one area to another, and how putting something in the ocean does not mean “out of sight, out of mind;” it just means it moves to a different place.  

Students will gain a better understanding of oceanographic processes that affect primary production, and the abundance of marine life in our waters. They will incorporate oceanography, engineering, math, geography, and technology into their learning. Subsequent classes and teachers will be able to incorporate these data into their classes, and potentially construct their own drifter buoys. Ms. Klimkosky has had prior training in building a drifter during a New England TAS alumni workshop in 2012. You can follow current drifters and find tracks from previous years here.