April 5, 2004 — Teachers across the country will have an opportunity to experience NOAA research from a new perspective, thanks to the debut of NOAA Teacher in the Air, a pilot program based on the ever popular NOAA Teacher at Sea program.

The Teacher at Sea program, for the past 13 years, has given teachers of kindergarten through college hands-on research experience aboard NOAA hydrographic survey and oceanographic and fisheries research ships. Now former Teachers at Sea may be contacted when a NOAA aircraft is working in their region to see if they want to broaden their horizons by becoming Teachers in the Air.

Two educators — one from Alaska and one from Hawaii — have flown aboard the NOAA Gulfstream-IV hurricane surveillance jet since February, during a Pacific winter storms research mission based in Anchorage and Honolulu. These pioneer Teachers in the Air are looking forward to sharing their new knowledge with their students and colleagues.

The first to fly under the new program was John Fink, a guidance counselor and former biology teacher from Austin E. Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fink was a Teacher at Sea aboard the NOAA fisheries ship Miller Freeman in 1993. Aboard the G-IV jet on Feb. 14, he learned how NOAA gathers data over the Pacific Ocean, where severe winter storms originate that seriously affect the continental United States and Alaska. The primary purpose of the research is to improve local weather forecasts released 24-96 hours before a storm.

“I was thrilled at the opportunity to fly with the G-IV crew and help promote NOAA to high school students,” Fink said. “Through each NOAA experience, I’ve gained an appreciation and enthusiasm for careers in science, which I transmit to students who express interest or aptitude in that area. Participating in these NOAA programs has enabled me to experience applied science in a real-world application and share it with students back home,” he said.

Like Teacher at Sea, the Teacher in the Air program provides benefits to NOAA, as well as to teachers. According to Jack Parrish, project manager for the G-IV jet, “It’s a real pleasure having educators aboard. I think in explaining what they do, our folks remember what made them enthusiastic in the first place, and not just dog tired as we are at the moment after all this flying.”

Parrish had just completed a weekend of flights (March 13-14) from the G-IV’s temporary base on O’ahu. Aboard the jet both days was teacher Dan VanRavenswaay, a high school marine science teacher from ASSETS school in Honolulu and 1993 Teacher at Sea aboard the NOAA fisheries ship Townsend Cromwell. VanRavenswaay learned how to prepare a dropwindsonde instrument for launch from the aircraft, then launched several of the probes himself under the guidance of John Hill, aircraft electrical engineer. These probes provide a vertical profile of the atmosphere as they float down to the sea by parachute. Later he worked with Paul Flaherty, flight director, to analyze the data from the instruments he launched before transmitting the information from the plane to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecast models. Sitting between the two pilots, he learned how the aircraft is precisely directed to each atmospheric measuring point desired by NCEP, with the goal of improving the forecast accuracy and increasing the warning lead time of destructive winter storms. VanRavenswaay also worked with Adrian Tuck from the NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, who was serving aboard the G-IV as the ozone transport expert, sampling ozone concentrations at various altitudes with an instrument designed and built by his lab.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow,” VanRavenswaay said after his flight on Sunday. “Tomorrow my students will be both excited and busy with what I bring back to class. This will be a great way to review some things we worked on earlier this year. I’ll be having them do some metric to English unit conversions, and then they’re going to make a map of my flights using GPS coordinates from our flight path. This will be a great Earth science, math, geography lesson for them — and within hours of when they all woke up this morning to the screaming winds caused by the frontal shear connected to the low we circumnavigated in the jet today. I could go on and on,” he said.

The G-IV completed its winter storms mission on March 15 and flew back to its home at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. But the Teacher in the Air program will not end here.

According to Jennifer Hammond, program manager of NOAA Teacher at Sea and its airborne offshoot, “We are contacting our ‘alumni’ who live in areas where we have aircraft working to see if they’d like to gain new experience. We are delighted that John Fink and Dan VanRavenswaay were able to take us up on the offer. Teachers who have participated in the Teacher at Sea program have proven to be enthusiastic about NOAA science, and pass their interest and knowledge on to their students. We expect the same will happen with Teacher in the Air, and will give our participating teachers an even broader base of experience to pass along.”

Hammond said that if the program works out as well as expected, she’ll develop an application process and qualifications criteria for teachers new to the NOAA education programs. In the meantime, “non-alumni” teachers who wish to fly will have to go through the Teacher at Sea application process.

Although Teacher in the Air began in February, NOAA did sponsor two “Teachers in the Field” last year. Part of the work they did involved flying aboard a NOAA WP-3D Orion “hurricane hunter” aircraft during a project in Bolivia. The success of that project contributed to the impetus for the new pilot program.

NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations administers the educational programs aboard NOAA research platforms. RADM Nicholas A. Prahl, deputy director of NMAO and the NOAA Commissioned Corps, whose officers command the ships and aircraft, said that “The NOAA Teacher at Sea program has provided teachers a wonderful opportunity to improve their research skills by working closely with NOAA scientists. We want to build on this success by also making teachers a part of the scientific teams aboard NOAA research aircraft that collect much of the data NOAA needs to carry out its mission.”

“It’s a win-win situation for us all,” Prahl added.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Teacher at Sea program

About the NOAA Ships and their Missions

NOAA Gulfstream-IV hurricane surveillance jet

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction

NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory

NOAA Aircraft Operations Center

NOAA WP-3D Orion “hurricane hunter” aircraft

NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations

NOAA Research

NOAA CORPS: OFFICERS OF THE NATION'S SMALLEST UNIFORMED SERVICE

SALLJEX Teachers in the Field

Media Contact:
Jeanne Kouhestani, NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations, (301) 713-3431 ext. 220