Skype with a Scientist

Over the last month, both of the classes had the opportunity to participate in a program called, "Skype with a Scientist" that I discovered online. This program matches classes with scientists who talk about what it's like to be a scientists studying in their particular field.

The Bair's Den AM had the opportunity to Skype with Kathy, a marine biologist who studies coral reefs and sponges. She is particularly interested in discovering a way to find out corals are sick earlier than people can now to help protect our fragile coral reef ecosystems. You can check out some photos of the work she is doing by clicking here and checking out these pictures from one of her research trips.

The Bair's Den PM had the opportunity to Skype with Sara, a environmental scientist who is studying the effect of climate change in polar regions. She shared a very interesting presentation with us, and she even incorporated everybody's animal from their ecosystem projects into her presentations!

Sara talking about how our animals fit into a food web and what happen if those animals disappear.

We watched her on the big screen, and she could see us from Mrs. Bair's computer.

It was really surprising to hear how climate change affects every animal!

The AM class had the chance to ask questions and asked Kathy about her favorite sea creatures she's studied, how she uses the scientific process every day, what kinds of tools she uses and how she collects data. The PM class had questions all ready, but we didn't get the chance to ask Sara our questions that day. We are hoping to Skype with her again after the PSSAs are over.

We are really thankful that we had the opportunity to meet these amazing women, and it was really interesting to hear how they are using the same process we have learned about in our class!