ROSCOE

Research at Oceanic Spreading Centers: Outreach in Education

Team Members: Karin Block, Vicki Ferrini, Breea Govenar, David Reeder, Shona Vitelli

Meeting Room: 235 (East side of 2nd floor), Worner Center

To add text, files, or images to this page, click the "Show Editing Controls" link in the upper right of this window, then click "Edit this page." Click the Editing Help link for details. Note that the infrastructure of these editable web pages are still under development. As possible, avoid simultaneous editors.

---

Post workshop summary and documents (earlier notes follow after summary)

Detailed activity description and procedure (Microsoft Word 40kB Jun9 09)

ROSCOE summary powerpoint (PowerPoint 589kB Jun9 09)

Action Items as of June 7th:

Vicki:

-Finish assembling EPR 9N images and color correcting them

-Assemble basic metadata and temperature data for images

-Work with Karin to find images of rock sample collection and to make links to petDB

-Work with Breea to assemble captions for bio images

-Push images into MediaBank

-Assemble spreadsheet with image metadata, links to MediaBank, and empty columns for students to add observations. Include an index column to ensure that images can be viewed in correct sequence

-Circulate spreadsheet to group

-Help with Geology & Technology story for about sections (Pt 2, Spreading Centers)

-Assemble images from Galapagos for Part 1.

Breea:

-Finish cartoons describing chemosynthesis

-Choose an image with lots of organisms identified to help teacher recognize organisms

-Help with Biology components of about sections (Pt 3, Creature explanations (above bullet); Pt.4, Chemistry/Chemosynthesis)

Karin:

-Identify PetDB data that we'll use

-Work with Vicki to integrate petDB data with images.

-Contribute to Geology/Geochem about sections (Pt 2, Spreading Centers.; Pt.4, Chemistry/Chemosynthesis)

Shona

-Contribute to explanation sections by working with B,V,K to ensure explanations are clear

-Work with David on general flow of chapter as necessary

David

-collect paycheck

-do all the rest

---

Pre-meeting Sharing Space

Please introduce yourself to your team members. Give a brief description of your role in facilitating the use of data in education. You can also post links, files, or images.

Karin Block

Hi Team! I am an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University working on geochemical data management systems, PetDB and EarthChem. I will be joining the faculty at the City College of New York as assistant professor in Fall 2009 where I will be integrating research-grade data into all my courses, which, as of now, range from climate change and geochemistry to databases and modeling. My research interests are also varied and include the use of geoinformatics resources for research-based undergraduate teaching and learning, petrology and geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks, and geochemistry applications for geothermal energy exploration.

I look forward to working with all of you to brainstorm ways in which we can apply data and visualizations in educational activities and devise better ways in which the data might be served in order to benefit K-16 educators.

Add Pre-meeting notes here:

Group Facilitator: Vicki Ferrini is an Associate Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is the Data Manager for the Ridge 2000 Data Portal hosted by the Marine Geoscience Data System. She is also a member of the Ridge 2000 Program Steering Committee. Her research specialty is using high resolution seafloor maps to understand the processes that shape the seafloor, and she has created and interpreted ultra-high resolution (sub-meter) maps of several hydrothermal vent fields using the deep submergence vehicles Alvin and Jason 2.

Note Taker: Karin Block is an Associate Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is the Data Manager for PetDB and EarthChem.

Curriculum Developer: David Reeder is a science teacher and department chair at the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts. He is on sabbatical this spring and is working as an intern for TERC's Earth Exploration Toolkit project. David has an MS and PhD from Dartmouth College, where his research interests were in digital geologic mapping and remote sensing.

An earlier EET chapter (still in development) using Ridge data was initiated in 2005 and can be accessed here. Our group may want to fold this chapter into our work, finish the chapter, or develop our own independent chapter. Please take a look at the chapter in its current form and provide your thoughts either here on the wiki page or at our next teleconference. (not yet scheduled?)

From David (5/17)

I've been looking through the older chapter, and I have a number of thoughts and questions that I thought I'd share with you to get your feedback. Thanks for contributing your ideas or concerns about anything you see here!

1. Planning an EET chapter that takes 6-8 class periods to complete seems to be too long for most teachers to use. I wonder if it would make more sense to break up the topics into smaller parts that could serve as stand-alone chapters. The first chapter could be based almost entirely on the work already completed for the topographic profile and probably could be finished quickly. The second chapter (needs updating from the older chapter) could focus on comparing spreading rates using the new version of GeoMapApp and would be very useful in a high school or first-year undergraduate geology course. I've done similar things with my classes using maps and rulers, so the visualization tools in GeoMapApp could be a really great addition to this topic. The third chapter could focus on the biology of the ridge systems (as I think Vicki and Karin have suggested) and perhaps build off the spreading rate comparisons done earlier. I think it would be helpful to get these chapters down to a 2-3 class period length (90 - 120 minutes total), if we want teachers to be able to incorporate them into their curriculum more easily.

2. I've had trouble adapting the following instructions from the earlier EET chapter, trying to get a topographic map of the ocean floor combined with isochron data:

Step 5-Collecting Data of the Movement of Mid Ocean Ridges

The data you will need to collect using GeoMapApp will be the rate of movement of all three ridges. Remember each member must collect their data on their assigned mid-ocean ridge and share it with their group members.

IMPORTING THE DATA INTO GEOMAPAPP

Locate the mid-ocean ridge with the same latitude/longitude from your ridge. If you forget how, please refer to the directions in the previous section (to make a profile).

To collect the age of the ocean floor rocks adjacent to your mid-ocean ridge, import this data under the "Database" option and click on "Isochrons".

After a few moments, the image should look like the example below. Please notice the light blue lines that run parallel to the mid-ocean ridge-these lines are called isochrons.

The new version has a different set of menu options, and I haven't been able to figure out how to do this yet. Can anyone help me use the new version to accomplish the same task?

From Karin (5/19)

1. This seems reasonable to me. I would suggest that we go ahead with the plan we are currently working on and then fold in elements from that chapter as they fit, keeping in mind your suggestions for brevity and usability in the classroom.

2. The GeoMapApp version they refer to is grossly outdated. That section will require a complete redo. I'm not sure how one can obtain seafloor ages in the current GMA, but from what I understand, version 2.0 (to be released in early June) will make this task very easy. For now you can load the Muller 2008 grid to visualize seafloor ages. To do this, go to View>Grids>Seafloor Bedrock Ages.

--------------------------

4/22 Outline (Vicki)

Concepts:
(1) Seafloor spreading
-spreading rates - young seafloor vs old seafloor (GMA)
-very slow spreading vs fast spreading – petrology
-mantle rock exposed at very slow spreading ridges
-correlate magmatism vs spreading
-large scale morphology associated with different spreading rates
(2) Hydrothermal systems
-hydrothermal structures
-chemosynthetic life forms
-bring in something (GMA layer?) from census of marine life ?
(3) How do we study MORs?
(a) Deep Submergence Vehicles
(b) Mapping (geology)
(c) Imaging (biology)
(d) Sampling

Tools:
Take students on 'virtual field trips' via GMA/VO
-large scale morphology etc with GMA/VO
-petrology with PetDB information overlaid on maps (global scale)
-look at fine-scale seafloor morphology with high-res maps
-link to Alvin/Jason images to look at biology and seafloor morphpology
-Fledermaus
-PetDB

Access select videos and images in MediaBank

5/13 Notes (Vicki and Karin) Possible Theme: Cooling Planet Earth

* Earth processes are driven by heat exchange, whether solar heat (atmosphere) or heat from the interior.
* We focus on the solid earth, how does heat leave the interior of the earth
* Volcano distribution
- Heat release, melting rocks, decompression.
- Fast vs. Slow – more melt at fast no melt at slow – sometimes can see mantle rocks – se
* Hydrothermal vents – 20% of heat loss happens through hydrothermal circulation.
- Video
- Global distribution of hydrothermal vents
* Heat flow what is it, maps, calculations?
* Hydrothermal vent exploration
* Critters, north vs. southern lau; pre- and post-eruption EPR
- Global distribution of hydrothermal vent organisms

---

Session 1 - Thursday Morning
Meet your team members. Learn about the data, tools, and expertise represented on your team. Review DataSheet(s) and explore data and tools.

Team members meet each other and share their experiences and viewpoints on using data in education. Review and discuss DataSheet(s) begun by the data representative(s) for your team. Explore datasets and tools and consider how the expertise on the team can complement them. If you haven't already done so, narrow down the range of datasets the team is considering using to a manageable number.

Add Session 1 Notes here:

---

Session 2 - Thursday Afternoon
Brainstorm data-use storylines

Brainstorm a set of possible storylines for valid investigations of the dataset(s) you have selected. Come up with at least one compelling scenario that will give users a reason to work through the technological steps necessary to perform an analysis of the data.

The Activity Outline Guide provides an outline for the minimum information needed for the team's activity outline.

Add session 2 Notes here:

Team Name — ROSCOE (Research at Oceanic Spreading Centers: Outreach in Education)

Names and affiliations of Team Members—

Working title for activity— Life in extreme environments: exploring underwater volcanoes at oceanic spreading centers. aka bottom hospitality.

Name(s) and URL(s) of dataset(s) used—

All are accessible through GeoMapApp/Virtual Ocean:

Integrating several datasets on the high resolution map.

MediaBank, http://media.marine-geo.org/album/ridge2000; GeoMapApp

Compose search URLs to get to images of biota, hydrothermal vents, videos of black smokers

Alvin - EPR images and JdF
TowCam images of newly emplaced lava - also available through
Jason - Lau

Provide a block of images they can explore through virtual van (from X time to X time)
Go to a map. then go to a site. explore from here to here.

critters, temp, vents,
Lau already a good collection; need JdF, EPR. Mosaics from Juande

For more information go to the map with locations where other vehicles have gone.

Where does the topography inform where vents have high T, diffuse flow, biota.
Best bathymetry: Abe, Tica, P-vent; if we bring in story of the eruption then this is where it would occur. Life after death in the deep sea!.

GMRT Global Multi-Resolution Topography

(Ryan et al. 2009)
Base map for GeoMapApp

PetDB

(basalt data - source of Fe, Ca, Na, etc.)

Name(s) and URL(s) of access/analysis software tool(s) used—

Target educational level for the activity (restrict to as few levels as possible)— high school; lower level undergrad

Case Study—

What will users be investigating through their data analysis? Develop a valid storyline that provides users with a reason to go through the steps.

Data Access and Analysis Procedures—

Identify the major tasks of the data access and analysis process.
(i.e: Download and install software, Request data for a specific time or place, Query the data to find X, etc.)

For each major task, produce an outline of detailed instructions to complete it. Include information that will help users to understand the data and analysis methods and to interpret their results.

Additional information—

Heat loss, crust, vents. surprised to find life; what are the requirements for them to be there. Investigation of heat but finding something different.

Story:

1. Initial discovery - Background information about Galapagos - link to Dive and Discover page

Toll Activity of Discovery - Let's explore; teach them how to recognize high and low temp vents. Black smoker video.
2. GeoMapApp or Virtual Ocean. Drill down with captions (mimic slideshow/animation with added images). Let's go to Lau and take a look! and temp and topo. No major tubeworms communities. Mussels and snails. Calcium comes from rocks; other nutrients come from vent. PetDB data

3. Map with other vents in GeoMapApp

Observations of the morphology of the EPR from profiling.
How big is the volcano? Where are the vents located?

Move on to MediaBank where they can see the differences in scale, explore pictures of the different kinds of hydrothermal vents. i.e., see vents at ASCT, then vents at other locations peripheral to axis to see different vents.


EPR: 8 High T vents 2 diffuse vents (Von Damm et al. 2004) Move on to the examining the critters. Spatial distribution. Distance from the axis; distance between vents; number of species? Add fluid chemistry data layer that is editable - there are/are no critters. Incidence of animals vs. temp and S, Fe. Temp at biogeotransect scale.

Density vs. diversity.
Plot of T vs. # of species. T data comes from Von Damm. Or plot N-S

Now that we've done our homework of gathering all this evidence, we have the privilege of going down there to check things out. Wrap it up with the HOV video going through - where are the animals live, where is the black smoker, lack of critters, etc.

Need: VonDamm & Lilly data (maybe use temperature records that correspond to images?); assemble images;

---

Sessions 3 and 4 - Friday Morning
Select a data-use scenario and perform a proof-of-concept check

Use the complementary expertise on the team to check that the task you are envisioning can actually be completed in an educational setting. Identify a target grade level for the activity and choose a working title.

Please limit the scope of the activity to tasks that can be accomplished by accessing existing data and tools. Discuss and agree upon the content limits of the activity as well. Consider that the major goal of these activities is to develop user familiarity with the data and tools.

Add Session 3 and 4 Notes here:

EPR Image collection 1990s (Fornari):

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=11038&c=2&cid=25587&tid=282

1. Open GeoMapApp
2. Go to list of all vents- can we specify just those with visual confirmation?
3. Go to Galapagos Spreading Center
4. Go to world, look for pattern- occur on "seams"
5. Here's MAR- use profiler tool, look at ridge axis (maybe not... save this for RIDGE EET Chapter?)
6. Here's EPR- use profiler tool, what's different? (look at ridge axis, where is the peak? why is there a valley?)
7. Now, let's take a look- download (simplified) image dataset
a. Look at edges of AST
b. Look in the valley
c. Find images

8. Color dots with images that have animals
9. Overlay chemistry data (sulfide, temperature), what is the correlation?

---

Sessions 5 and 6 - Friday Afternoon
Develop your case study storyline and outline the procedures for data access and analysis Case Study Development

Record ideas, bullet points, or actual text that will become part of the case study to introduce users to the issues and concepts of the activity. Gather links for appropriate images, diagrams, and background text.

Record the name and URL of all datasets and access/analysis software tools to be used. List the major tasks users will complete, then perform a deliberate walk-through of each task to capture the full sequence of procedures. Give special attention to the most difficult or least intuitive steps, and note points in the sequence where additional information will be helpful.

Add Session 5 and 6 Notes here: (David)

Earth Exploration Toolkit chapter – June 2009

ROSCOE – Research at Ocean Spreading Centers: Outreach to Education

Working Title:

Life in Extreme Environments: Exploring underwater volcanoes at oceanic spreading centers

Big idea:

No one expected to find abundant life in the deep ocean bottom thriving in hot fluids along plate boundaries, but the surprise discovery in 1979 of a rich biologic ecosystem in an environment of high pressure, toxic chemicals, frequent eruptions, and complete darkness completely changed our understanding of how life can exist. Research in the 30 years since the first discovery has helped us better understand how heat from the earth's interior is released through underwater hydrothermal vents, and how the complex interaction of geology and chemistry create an environment where life can be supported through chemosynthesis.

Outline of case study: (Shona)

• First exploration of divergent margin towing underwater cameras and sensors in 1977 revealed hydrothermal vents and the first evidence of these ecosystems (large dead clam shells on the seafloor)
  
• Expected to find volcanic features like lava flows and underwater hot springs
  
• Subsequent research in 1979 when Alvin visited the Galapagos revealed an undersea world brimming with life (Rose Garden Vent Field)
  
• Focus on surprise and wonder of the discovery
• How can life exist in such an apparently hostile environment?
• No light, high pressure, constant earthquakes and eruptions, extreme temperatures
• Reference to pdf article in Oceanus by Robert Ballard
• Reference to audio file of Jack Corliss' first observation of the Clambake site
• Dive and Discovery pages at WHOI provide excellent background information on these sites and the tools used in their exploration
• Conclude with statement that hydrothermal vents at oceanic spreading centers have changed our views of where life can exist and flourish, both on earth and in the universe.

Objectives of this activity:

• Guide students through a similar process of discovery, using tools and data from the Ridge 2000 Data Portal (http://www.marine-geo.org/ridge2000)and other sources.
• Provide students with instructions on using GeoMapApp to explore the topography, biology, and chemistry of the underwater volcanoes along oceanic spreading centers.

Outline of major parts of the activity:

Part 1: Explore the Galapagos spreading center using GeoMapApp – introduce basic functions of the tool using the location of the first discovery and underwater images from the site.

Part 2: Create a topographic profile across the East Pacific Rise – explore relationships between locations of hydrothermal vents and the topography of a spreading center using high-resolution data from Ridge 2000 research at EPR.

Part 3: Investigate the life forms that populate the East Pacific Rise – view images taken at the site, make observations, and explore relationships between location, species concentration and diversity, vent structures, and water temperature.

Part 4: Dig deeper into the chemistry that supports life on the East Pacific Rise – use chemistry data from rock samples to identify elements that are used by bacteria for chemosynthesis.

Part 1 procedure outline:

1. Open GeoMapApp
2. Open data set of global distribution of vent regions (Interridge)

Questions for students (recognizing and interpreting patterns)
a. Do you see a pattern in how these vent regions are distributed?
b. What big topographic feature is commonly associated with these regions?

3. Use table to identify Galapagos vent region and zoom in
4. Open image layer to explore archived photos from the discovery site (Breea and Vicki developing this)

Question for Vicki – how to we close layers that we no longer want to see displayed?

Part 2 procedure outline:

1. Open hydrothermal vent location data from EPR
2. Zoom into location of vent field using zoom tool

Questions for students (reading tabular data)
a. When were these locations mapped?
b. How deep below sea level are these locations?

3. Draw a profile across ridge axis to create 2-D vertical cross-section of topography and draw the cursor over the graph

Questions for students (interpreting graphs)
a. What do the x and y axes on the graph represent?
b. What do the colors on the map represent?

4. Use the view menu to show the color scale (vertical axis) and map scale (horizontal axis)

Questions for students (interpreting graphs and drawing inferences)
a. What kind of feature does the shape of this profile remind you of?
b. Does the location of the hydrothermal vents on the profile tell you anything about what kind of feature this might be?
c. Is it surprising to find this kind of feature on the bottom of the ocean?

5. Load high-resolution topography data (ABE) from EPR and zoom in on vent sites that are located where high-res data is available (northern end of zone)
6. Draw several profiles across ridge axis so that they intersect vents

Questions for students (interpreting graphs and drawing inferences)
a. What new feature do you see on each of these graphs using the high-resolution data?
b. Where are the vents located on these graphs?

7. Explanation section on Divergent Plate Margins and Oceanic Spreading Centers (Vicki, Karin)

· Description of circulation patterns in aesthenosphere (driven by heat release from core?)
· Simulation of plate motions at spreading centers
· Creation of new oceanic seafloor through volcanic activity
· Inflation and deflation
· Seafloor spreading, collapse, permeable seafloor
· Black smokers - hydrothermal vent chimneys with black smoke
· What happens when hot magma comes in contact with cold seawater?

Part 3 procedure outline:

1. Explanation section on Creatures that live near a Hydrothermal Vent (Breea?)

· Description of types of creatures that can be found
· Sample picture with organisms identified (Breea/Vicki)

2. Retain high-resolution topography and vent location data from Part 2.
3. Load image subset from EPR (Breea and Vicki developing this)
4. Explore vent field images and record observations in editable data table:

a. Life present or not present
b. Estimate number of animals in each image
c. Smoking chimney structures present or not present
d. Evidence of rock collapse present or not present
e. Water cloudy or not cloudy

5. Use color by value to explore spatial patterns in observations and relate to vent locations

Questions for students: (interpreting patterns and making inferences)
a. Need some questions!

6. Load temperature data set from EPR (Vicki developing this)
7. Draw profile of temperature vs vent location parallel to axis

Questions for students: (interpreting patterns and making inferences)
a. Need some questions!

Note: Steps 8 and 9 may be an extension activity – should they be included in part 2 instead of part 3?

Remaining tasks to make this complete (and to finalize the story):
-temperature data
-images (Vicki and Breea will write captions for MediaBank)
-presentation of images
-spreasheet with empty columns that can be used for students to add their observations.

Part 4 procedure outline:

1. Explanation section on role of bacteria in a hydrothermal vent ecosystem (Karin, Breea, Shona)

· Question – how can tube worms live in such an extreme environment?
· What are the raw materials living things need in order to grow and thrive? Living things adapt to their environment in order to survive. They consume what is available. The rocks at the EPR are called basalt, also the most common rock on earth. What is in basalt that provides important nutrients to living things? (Karin's notes)
· Split open a tube worm to find bacteria
· Chemosynthesis – bacteria reduce sulfur to create energy for converting inorganic carbon into food for the tube worm
· Compare with photosynthesis
· Role of bacteria in our own bodies
· Role of bacteria in other extreme environments

2. Load chemistry data from EPR (Karin developing this)
3. Look at silica composition in tables – use statistical tools to show fairly consistent values representing basalt
4. Look at sulfur concentration in tables – certain samples along ridges show much higher values that elsewhere

5. Compare the locations of these sites with location of hydrothermal vents

Note: Do we have fluid chemistry data that can help flesh out this aspect of our story?

Questions for students (extend understanding to other contexts)
a. How does the chemistry data support the hypothesis that bacteria are the key organism in this ecosystem?
b. What are some other extreme environments that might use similar methods for supporting life?

-Schematics of organisms explaining chemosynthesis (Breea)

-Identify a few rock samples for which we have chem data, and an image of acquisition for students to understand where nutrients come from

-Explanation of chemosynthesis and sulfide as source for energy is covered in chemosynthetic story.

---

Session 7 - Saturday Morning
Enhance your step-by-step procedures by adding "About" sections that provide extra information; List several ideas for "Going Further" with the data or tools

Fill in any gaps in your activity outline and add sections that can help users make meaning of the data. Suggest several ideas for the "Going Further" section that challenge users to work with the data and/or tools in other investigations. These suggestions provide launching points for scientific inquiry which is facilitated by the skills learned in the activity.

Add Session 7 Notes here:

Action Items:

Vicki:

-Finish assembling EPR 9N images and color correcting them

-Assemble basic metadata and temperature data for images

-Work with Karin to find images of rock sample collection and to make links to petDB

-Work with Breea to assemble captions for bio images

-Push images into MediaBank

-Assemble spreadsheet with image metadata, links to MediaBank, and empty columns for students to add observations. Include an index column to ensure that images can be viewed in correct sequence

-Circulate spreadsheet to group

-Help with Geology & Technology story for about sections (Pt 2, Spreading Centers)

-Assemble images from Galapagos for Part 1.

Breea:

-Finish cartoons describing chemosynthesis

-Choose an image with lots of organisms identified to help teacher recognize organisms

-Help with Biology components of about sections (Pt 3, Creature explanations (above bullet); Pt.4, Chemistry/Chemosynthesis)

Karin:

-Identify PetDB data that we'll use

-Work with Vicki to integrate petDB data with images.

-Contribute to Geology/Geochem about sections (Pt 2, Spreading Centers.; Pt.4, Chemistry/Chemosynthesis)

Shona

-Contribute to explanation sections by working with B,V,K to ensure explanations are clear

-Work with David on general flow of chapter as necessary

David

-collect paycheck

-do all the rest

---

Session 8 - Final Team Breakout
Finalize your Activity outline and DataSheet, Generate PowerPoint slides for the report out session, Upload all resources to this page

Create a 2- or 3-slide ppt file for the report out session.

• Slide 1: Team name, names of team members, and a brief phrase to describe each individual's contribution
• Slide 2: Working title for your activity, names of dataset(s) and tool(s) utilized
• Slide 3: Your choice of something to illustrate your team's vision of the completed activity

Attach the file plus any other documents produced by the team to this page. Include final versions of the team's DataSheet.

Add Session 8 Notes here:

ROSCOE powerpoint (PowerPoint 589kB Jun6 09)

---