The House Ocean Caucus invited NOAA Teacher at Sea alumni Michele Brustolon (TAS 2010) and Allan Phipps (TAS 2012) to the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on July 11, 2013, to speak at a briefing titled “NOAA Science Transforming Classrooms and Communities”. They were asked to address how the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) consolidation proposal in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request impacts their own community.  

The goal of the House Ocean Caucus is to build awareness, exchange information and ideas, and to explore important issues that relate to the ocean. Representative Sam Farr (CA), Co-Chair of the House Ocean Caucus met with Ms. Brustolon and Mr. Phipps at the beginning of the briefing. Staff from the House of Representatives were in attendance.

Ms. Brustolon and Mr. Phipps spoke about their research experience with NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program and how the program continues to provide unique access to NOAA’s scientists, platforms, and data that benefits their students and community.