The Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) has a goal to promote partnerships between research scientists and educators. As a part of this effort, COSEE: Central Gulf of Mexico (COSEE:CGOM) offers many opportunities for you as a scientist to both interact with your peers, and with our educators in the Gulf states.

As part of our Teacher/Scientist Institute every summer, we invite scientists to come and present their research on a variety of topics that are important to our Oceans and the Gulf Coast community as a whole. We recruit teacher participants from across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, to attend the workshops, where they will have the opportunity to get hands on with researchers in the field and find ways to bring this back to the classroom. For the scientist, it offers a unique opportunity to interact with teachers, and find new ways to reach out to the general public as a whole as well.

Following the face-to-face institute, teachers and scientists return home and continue the program through our Online Institute for three weeks in July. This features six additional ocean science lessons that build upon what was covered in the classroom. We highly encourage you to learn more about this program and apply for summer 2009.

If a summer institute is not your cup of tea, or if you are looking for additional opportunities, the COSEE:CGOM also offers Two-Day Workshops that target specific ocean science topics. The goal of the programs are to provide formal and informal educators with the latest research on ocean observing systems and apex predators; grant opportunities to network with colleagues and scientists; and provide a forum for discussing ways to bridge the gap between scientists, policy makers and educational communities. We hold two a year and we highly encourage you to attend.

Finally, COSEE:CGOM is proud to offer teachers the opportunity to join researchers and scientists on an actual ocean voyage aboard a research vessel though our Sea Scholars Program. Sea Scholars is organized around the notion that real-life oceanographic ship operations, problems and destinations present appropriate classroom topics which integrate all principal subjects.  The program connects the Navy's oceanographic fleet with classrooms around the country via emerging technology, including the World Wide Web (WWW) and satellite communications. Topics include: sea and seafaring, nautical skills, oceanography, geography, meteorology, marine biology, geology, communications, literature, the arts, and interdisciplinary studies of distant lands and peoples. It’s a very popular program so sign up now to compete for a limited seat on our next voyage.