A newsletter from the Prince William Sound Science Center

March 4, 2025

Sea otters swim through the reflection of February's full moon over Orca Inlet. Photo by S Baumann.

As a Community Organized Restoration and Learning Network (CORaL) member, the PWSSC is excited to announce our partnership on the Understanding Herring Health Across Environmental Gradients project. This project seeks to understand the relationship between temperature and herring susceptibility to disease in Alaska and Washington. The Science Center’s role in this project is to help with outreach and science communication. We will work with community members in southcentral Alaska to include various community perspectives.

If you want to learn more about this project or share your perspective, please contact creo@pwssc.org. Click below for more information.

Students watch as Mrs. Allison cooks the vegetables for pancit. Photo by PWSSC.

The new year brought a new vegetable to the second-grade hydroponic experience: bok choy. Bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage often used in Filipino recipes. Quick to grow, the plants were ready to harvest just six weeks after planting.

Aileen Allison helped the students turn their crops into pancit. While she sauteed the onions and carrots, the students gathered around the wok to hear about the cultural significance of pancit in Filipino culture. Some students chimed in with their own experiences of eating pancit as a celebratory food. 

All the students left the classroom begging for more and clutching baggies of bok choy to take home to share with their families.

To see more photos and get the recipe, click here.

The Prince William Sound Science Center facilitates hydroponics in the classroom as part of the Discovery Room. Throughout the year, the second grade learns about plant needs and the role of plants in the ecosystem. The hydroponics lessons address Alaska state science standards as a hands-on experience while demonstrating ways the community can use technology for problem-solving and community resilience.

Pink salmon in stream. Photo by PWSSC.

Do you conduct salmon/habitat research and/or monitoring in the Copper River Basin? If so, we would love to hear more. The purpose of this survey, accompanying surveys, and the resulting web mapping application is to gather and display information about current and recent research and monitoring on Copper River salmon in the Copper River Basin, Alaska.

Thanks to Ahtna Intertribal Resource Commission's Casey Cusick for helping develop the questionnaire and interactive map.

Alaska Native mentor panel (left to right: Michael Opheim, Raven Cunningham, and Orville Lind) as they answer questions in an open and honest discussion about various topics from Traditional Ecological Knowledge to U.S. laws and Alaska Native Peoples. Photo by CRRC.

PWSSC staff members attended the Collective Alaska Native Perspectives (CANP) training in February. CANP is a three-day, immersive training put on by the Chugach Regional Resources Commission and funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council through the Community Organized Restoration and Learning (CORaL) Network.

This workshop is a dedicated space for researchers and professionals working in the Chugach region to learn from Tribal Elders, Alaska Native mentors, and guest speakers. Topics include true Alaska Native histories, cross-cultural communication, U.S. laws and Alaska Native Peoples, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and much more. This workshop is a time to build relationships and foster understanding of Chugach values. CANP is designed to help shift the lens of how working professionals live and work on Alaska Native lands and develop best practices and protocols for working with Alaska Native Tribes and Organizations.

“Collective Alaska Native Perspectives is an investment in our region. Creating stronger relationships with Chugach Tribes, our regional partners and colleagues, and ourselves is key to building resilient and healthy communities. This is an opportunity to learn about our region’s Alaska Native culture, traditions, and Chugach People from our Chugach People.” -Robin McKnight, CRRC

Awa’ahdah to the respected Elders, Native Village of Eyak Tribal members, and guest speakers who attended the training and shared their knowledge, perspectives, and guidance.

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. Everyone is welcome to attend. A current calendar of events can be found on our website. Subscribe here if you'd like to receive email notifications for upcoming community education programs.

March 10 (6:30-8:00 pm) Spring Break Pajama Party!

Bring your pjs, sleeping bags, and stuffies for popcorn and a movie on the big screen. Children in first grade and younger must be accompanied by a guardian. 

March 12 (6:30-8:00 pm) Community Astronomy Night

Make moon craters, learn about the northern lights, listen to constellation stories, and eat mooncakes. Weather permitting, there will also be an introduction to telescopes. This program is open to all ages, and you do not have to have kids attend! 

March 18 (7-8 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: PWS Audubon

This night’s talk will be a meeting of the Prince William Sound Audubon and is open to the public at the Prince William Sound Science Center.

March 24 & 31 (3:30-5:00 pm) Science and Snacks: Crabs

This month, we will explore crab anatomy, have crab walk races, and play along the shore looking for crabs. 

This program is limited to 10 children in grades 1-6. You must register in advance. Please email education@pwssc.org.

March 25 (7-8 pm) Tuesday Night Talk: Diving into Kelp

This talk will be presented by Dr. Alysha Cypher (PWSSC) and Noble Ocean Farms. They will review current projects and discuss the challenges and successes they have faced in seaweed mariculture. 

Sixth graders practice cleanup techniques during their oil-spill-in-a-pan exercise. Photo by PWSSC staff.

Preschool Programs

Sea Squirts used their five senses to explore rocks. They described and sorted rocks, used fine motor skills to clean them and paint them, and decorated rock collection boxes.

Little Dippers explored muskeg, lake, mountain, and forest ecosystems in sun, snow, and rain. They investigated animals in winter – migration, hibernation, and camouflage – through curiosity, play, teamwork, and art.

After-School Programs

Science & Snacks students made healthy apple slices into a delicious fish-shaped snack. Participants played trust-building fish-finding games, made fish prints, competed in an Alaska State Fish Art competition, learned how fish use gills for breathing, and dissected a fake fish.

Teaching Through Technology (T3) students have been preparing for the Science Olympiad competition to take place in Fairbanks, Alaska, at the end of March.

Homework Club students exercised their engineering abilities by making tall, freestanding towers out of various materials such as spaghetti and paper.

Adult Programs

Nature Yoga closed out an exciting and busy Ice Worm Festival with a mindful stretch session. Participants got a true abdominal workout as they wormed their way through stretches and ice worm facts.

PWSSC’s Science Trivia Night took place for the first time this year at the Reluctant Fisherman. Visiting researchers Dr. David Paez (USGS) and Dr. Malina Loeher (APU) led a fun-filled night of herring-themed trivia.

Our Tuesday Night Talk lecture series included three talks in Februrary. You can catch all of them on our YouTube Channel  by clicking on the Lecture Series playlist. See below for a summary.

• Alaska EPSCoR hosted an Interface of Change Community Workshop.
• Dr. David Paez (USGS) and Dr. Malina Loeher (APU) gave an update on Pacific Herring Disease Ecology.
• Steve Moffit presented at the monthly Audubon meeting on Cordova Area Trail Cameras.

In-School Programs

In February, our educators met with grades K-6 as part of our Discovery Room program.

• Kindergarteners learned about the three ingredients needed for snow (water, dust, and cold temperatures). They examined different shapes of snowflakes and practiced naming and counting shapes in their snowflake art creations.
• First Graders explored how light travels through objects. They can now explain the difference between opaque, translucent, and transparent.
• Second Graders said the highlight of their month was the Discovery Room pancit party. For the past two months, they have been growing bok choy. Mrs. Allison visited the class to share her knowledge of Filipino cooking and made pancit for the kids.
• Third Graders visited the Science Center for a field trip. They toured the building while completing a scavenger hunt, talked to research associate Anne Schaefer to learn how she studies and bands birds, and dissected mock bird stomachs made of jello.
• Fourth Graders put their knowledge of turbines to the test by designing blades for wind turbines and measuring how many volts their wind turbines produced.
• Ms. Brock’s fifth-grade class practiced identifying the five types of salmon in the ocean phase. They learned the importance of escapement (how many fish make it into the river to swim upstream to spawn) and put their fish ID skills to the test by watching videos of fish passing through weirs and trying to count how many there were of each species.
• Sixth Graders continued their oil spill response education and responded to two separate oil spill simulations. The first was an oil spill in a pan, where they cleaned up a mock oil spill. The second was a simulated scenario, and were given a limited number of response vessels, response tools, and time to respond.