A newsletter from the Prince William Sound Science Center

February 7, 2024

The end of January ushered in cool temperatures and clear skies. When conditions are just right, the iceberg-studded lake in front of Sheridan Glacier is a world-class ice skating adventure for Cordovans. Photo credit: PWSSC.

Team photo during the meeting in Cordova. Several people also attended virtually. Photo credit: PWSSC

The Mariculture Research and Restoration Consortium (Mariculture ReCon) Team met in Cordova mid-January. Mariculture ReCon is a partnership between the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, Alaska Sea Grant, Axiom Data Science, Native Village of Eyak, NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Prince William Sound Science Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, and shellfish and seaweed farmers from across southcentral Alaska. The overarching goal of this program is to support restoration, habitat enhancement, and economic development through research and partnerships between scientists and seaweed and shellfish farmers in the Exxon Valdez oil spill affected area. 

The primary investigators (PIs) and farmers came together, bringing their individual work and placing it in the context of the larger regional picture. PIs gave component updates on their research projects involving sensor arrays, oceanography and plankton, benthic communities, pelagic fish, marine birds, and marine mammals. Farmers provided updates and discussed how the sensors that were added to their farms were working. The meetings concluded with planning and strategy work sessions among the farmers and scientists for the upcoming field season, as well as practical trainings using sampling devices in the Cordova harbor.

Visit our website to learn more about the Mariculture Research and Restoration Consortium's work.

This ice skating video at Sheridan Glacier is set to an auditory representation of glacial mass data created by a local fifth grader.

There are many ways to experience scientific data. We see numbers portrayed in charts, arranged in graphs, and transcribed onto maps. The fifth grade class at Mt. Eccles Elementary School discovered a different way to experience data – through sonification! 

Data sonification transforms data points into sound. Some examples of data sonification include clocks in which every tick is a second, and a chime is an hour, and Geiger counters, instruments used for detecting radiation. Recently, researchers have been transcribing their data points into musical notes to look for patterns and abnormalities in their data sets. Additionally, sonification can aid in accessibility, allowing those who cannot see data to experience it through hearing. 

Cordova’s fifth graders were given a data set representing glacial mass, freshwater influx, and changing sea levels from 1956 to 2017. Using a computer program, TwoTone, they set the data to music. Click here to learn more about data sonification and listen to some of the results the students created. The video above is a data song set to ice skating at Sheridan Glacier.

We hope you can join us this month for some educational fun! Different programs are intended for specific ages, as noted below. Younger participants need to be accompanied by a caregiver. All are welcome to attend. A current calendar of events can be found on our website. If you'd like to receive email notifications for upcoming community education programs, you can subscribe here.

February 9 (2:30-3:30) Fun Friday: Wild and Wacky Weather

What does it take to predict the weather? Explore different forms of extreme weather and their effects through hands-on experiments and demonstrations. The intended audience is kids in grades K-4 and their caregivers. 

February 12 (2-3 pm) Sea Squirts: Mini Meteorologist

Get wild and wacky with the weather! Experiment with wind and precipitation, pretend to be a meteorologist, make a windsock, and more! The intended audience is kids aged 3-5 and their caregivers.

February 13 (7-8 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: First Impressions of Antarctica

Milo Burcham of Prince William Sound Audubon Society will present stories and images from the Antarctic Peninsula and South Georgia Island. Open to the public.

February 20 (7-8 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: Sea Stars

Sarah Traiger (USGS), a Gulf Watch Alaska team member, will discuss her work with sea stars and sea star wasting disease in Prince William Sound. Open to the public.

February 23 (2:30-3:30 pm) Fun Friday: Pinnipeds

The Science Center has put the “seal” of approval on our next Fun Friday! Explore with us as we learn about seals, sea lions, and walruses. The intended audience is kids in grades K-4 and their caregivers. 

Fifth graders learn about erosion by making experimental cities that need to withstand a river running through them. Photo credit: PWSSC.

January brought sunny weather, freshly fallen snow, and the start of Ice Worm Festival fun.

Sea Squirts focused on inventions and tinkering. Preschoolers explored kitchen inventions in a sensory bin, deconstructed keyboards to see how they work, and built marble tracks.

Fun Friday was frozen with snow. Children explored the wonderful world of snow and ice, learned about the different types of snowflakes, dug through ice layers, guessed how much water is in a cup of snow, and made their own snow.

We joined the Cordova community for some Ice Worm Pre-ICE-Storic activities!

• You may have seen us at the paper airplane contest. We had a station where kids looked at real fossils through magnifying glasses and made their own fossil molds. 
• In a dino-mite collaboration with the Cordova library, we joined the afterschool art program to make fossil rubbings. Artists used their rubbings and impressions to make Valentine's Day cards. 
• Preschoolers roared their way into Ice Worm at Pre-School-Storic. Little tots made dinosaur masks, dug for fossils, and solved dino puzzles.
• We capped off the Ice Worm Festival with a special showing of Chasing Ice, a film about our changing planet focusing on the remaining glaciers and how they are receding over time.

Nature Yoga was centered around the movements of seals, sea lions, and walruses. Jessica Pretty led our yoga participants on a pinniped-centered journey. 

Tuesday Night Talks from January can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

• A Methodology for Determining Optimal Line Spacing was presented by Lexa Meyer of UAF.
• Anna’s Hummingbird: Alaska’s Winter Hummingbird was presented by Kate McLaughlin of the Alaska Hummingbird Project
• The L Pod: The Salish Sea and Puget Sound Resident Killer Whales was presented by Mr. Westing’s Marine Science Class (CHS).

PWSSC started the year by bringing science into the classroom at Mt. Eccles Elementary School through Discovery Room:

• Kindergarteners made windsocks and practiced making predictions in a windy experiment.  
• During an interactive visit with the Native Village of Eyak, first graders learned how, for centuries, people have understood that vibration makes sound. NVE taught students how to make drums, and the students experimented with sound waves by playing the different drums next to an oscilloscope to see the sound wave patterns. 
• Third graders learned about bird beak adaptations through an interactive game and graphing.
• Having learned where energy comes from and the difference between non-renewable and renewable sources, fourth graders discovered that conserving energy is the best way to use less fossil fuels. To make this lesson applicable to everyday lives, they designed and built models of energy-efficient houses and tested them in Cordova’s snowy cold weather.
• January was the month of the geosphere in fifth grade. Students explored interactions between the atmosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere that cause erosion and impact human systems. 
• The sixth graders started learning about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and how oil spills can affect marine environments. Their first lesson was performing the oil spill in a pan experiment, observing how oil and water interact, and testing the best clean-up methods for oil spills. They will continue to learn about oil spills and oil spill clean-up as the school year progresses.

Alaska residents: have you filed your Permanent Fund Dividend application? Dedicating a portion of your PFD through Pick.Click.Give. is a quick and easy way to support the Prince William Sound Science Center. Your contribution helps us offer year-round science and outdoor education programs that get kids out in nature to learn about their local ecosystems.