This was sent to me, and I wanted to share with everyone.
Dear Educator:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is engaged in an exciting online
expedition – called OceanInsight – involving a teacher with Perkins
School for the Blind of Watertown, MA. The website is specially designed
to be accessible to students who are blind or visually impaired. You can
find the site at
http://www.whoi.edu/projects/OceanInsight.
On Wednesday, September 19, a team of oceanographers, led by Dr. Amy
Bower, a physical oceanographer at WHOI, began a 10-day research voyage
to the Labrador Sea. There they will deploy a mooring programmed to
launch floats into passing eddies over the next two years. The floats
will collect data on the properties of the water in the eddies to add to
our knowledge of global ocean circulation and ultimately contribute to
our understanding of climate change.
Dr. Bower is legally blind and is committed to demonstrating to young
people with visual impairments that they can pursue a career in science
or any field that inspires them. OceanInsight is her means to do that.
Science teacher, Kate Fraser, is also on the OceanInsight expedition.
She and Amy are creating an educational experience for students who are
blind and visually impaired. During the cruise, they are posting daily
journals and "audio postcards" to the website, responding to e-mail from
the students, as well as making phone calls to Perkins classrooms. You
can listen to the phone calls on the OceanInsight website.
I hope you will take a moment to go to the OceanInsight web site and
follow along with the expedition.
Best regards,
Stephanie Murphy
WHOI Information Office