NOAA Teacher at Sea Alumni John Sammons (TAS 2005), Jill Stephens (TAS 2009), Dana Clark (TAS 2014), and Jennifer Fry (TAS 2009 and 2012) volunteered at regional science conferences in order to share their experiences at sea, inform the public about the TAS Program and distribute NOAA education materials. Through their efforts at these conferences, NOAA Teacher at Sea Alumni communicate NOAA’s mission and service to the public, as well as show NOAA’s impact on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM). 

John Sammons volunteered at the National Science Teachers Association Conference in Richmond, VA in October 2014. The conference, Celebrate Science Inside and Out, focused on watershed science, partnerships and collaborations, and integrating science with other disciplines.

Jill Stephens volunteered at the National Science Teachers Association Conference in Orlando, FL in November 2014. The conference, Science: Adventures into the Future, focused on elementary science education, environmental explorations, and STEM connections. Jill said, “I had a wonderful experience and look forward to the opportunity to participate in NOAA events in the future.”

Dana Clark volunteered in November 2014 at the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT) annual Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST). Attendance in recent years has exceeded 7,500 participants, which makes CAST the largest statewide meeting of science teachers in the nation.

Jennifer Fry volunteered at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conference in Long Beach, California in December 2014. This was the largest regional conference that NSTA has ever had, with 6,000 participants. STEM classrooms, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) implementation, and science as the gateway to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were the conference focus, but sessions focused on a wide variety of topics including analyzing live ocean data.