What is Project INSTAR? 

Investigating Nature through Science Teacher Active Research

Project INSTAR in Coastal North Carolina will be held in Wilmington, NC, June 13-20, 2003.  Project INSTAR is a science teacher institute focused on earth systems science education and technology training in coastal marine environments.  The Institute expanded to Coastal North Carolina in the summer of 2001 to provide an innovative approach to teacher professional development.  The Institute, developed by a team of scientists and educators, began in 1998 at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.  Our mission is to enhance the geoscience knowledge of middle school and high school teachers throughout the southeast United States by offering laboratory, field, and technology training in coastal marine science themes.  Teachers can directly use the activities, lessons, and materials back in their classrooms.

Project INSTAR 2003 Theme:     

    Water Quality and Coastal Management in Southeast North Carolina

 Interested in engaging in real scientific research activities in Coastal North Carolina that you can use back in your classroom?  Participants will apply the scientific method to actively examine the hydrology, ecology, and human impact on coastal watershed processes.  The program will combine intensive field and laboratory components designed to integrate biological, chemical, geological, and geographical approaches to determining watershed health.  In the field, participants will conduct geologic surveys, measure hydrodynamic conditions in tidal waters, examine plant and animal communities, utilize various water and soil sampling strategies, and examine land use conditions using a GPS and GIS technology.  In the laboratory, participants will conduct water quality and soil analyses, learn mapping skills, and quantify various coastal land cover ecosystems.  Emphasis will be placed on concepts and exercises that can be modified for application in a wide range of middle school and high school classroom settings.  Each participant will synthesize these data to produce a research report and project poster.

The instructors for the Institute are Dr. Joanne Halls, Dr. Lynn Leonard, and Dr. Eric Henry  of the Earth Sciences Department at UNCW, and Tom and Karen Booker of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District.

Course Requirements:

All participants are expected to attend all 7 days and evenings of the Institute between June 13-20, 2003.  Participants will stay in a beach house located in Wrightsville Beach.  Two follow-up days will also be required during the fall 2003 semester (exact dates and locations to be announced).  Course requirements are listed below.

The schedule for the workshop is here.

Team Projects

Each 2 person "team" will determine the spatial variability of 4 parameters for 7 sites in the watershed and will attempt to identify any relationship between their parameters.  Further, each team will measure flow discharge at the 4 non-tidal sites and will calculate the load of one of their parameters at those sites.  The "loading" parameter is indicated in bold in the lists below.  Each team will be randomly assigned a project.

1)  Total suspended solids, phosphate, pH, salinity

2)  Nitrate, phosphate, dissolved oxygen, and temperature

3) Total suspended solids, iron, dissolved oxygen, temperature

4) Sulfate, copper, pH, salinity

5) Dissolved oxygen, salinity, temperature, pH

Participants receive:

Registration:

Applications can be received by contacting Genevieve Healy ghealy@cires.colorado.edu.

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Last updated: June 18, 2003.