We recently heard the fantastic news that some of our previous Digital Wave students had been finalists for some prestigious scholarships. Now we are so proud to report that we officially have 2 winners of the Dell Scholars Program, and 1 winner for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program! These are not your everyday scholarships. These are like hitting-the-jackpot type scholarships. The Dell scholarship includes: $20,000 towards college expenses, technology equipment, a private scholar networking community, and mentoring support throughout college. The Gates Millennium scholarship provides a full ride for all college expenses, opportunities to renew the scholarship if academic progress is maintained, leadership development programs, and even funding for graduate school in the areas of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, and science. So who are the academic all-stars who earned the jackpot?

Gregory Hyppolite, winner of the Dell Scholars program, plans to attend the University of West Florida. At the Museum, he has participated in Digital Wave as well as the Upward Bound program since ninth grade. He is a member of the Museum’s Youth Advisory Board and holds a position as Explainer to help supplement his family’s income. At school, he is a member of the Leadership Team and has earned an internship position with the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County, Alberto M. Carvalho. Greg is a natural leader, ambitious, and as any other student will tell you, is always willing to lend assistance to anyone in need.

David Green, believe it or not, has earned both the Dell AND the Gates scholarships! David has also been a participant in the Museum’s Digital Wave and Upward Bound programs. Graduating as valedictorian this year, he plans to attend the University of Florida. He has been actively involved in his school’s robotics team, tutors other students, has helped develop the Overtown Cookbook, all while holding a steady part-time job. Quick, thoughtful, and encouraging to his peers, he believes that “education is my refuge in adversity.”

Tags: Dell Scholars Program, Gates Millennium Scholarship Program, Upward Bound

On a field trip to Anne Kolb Nature Center, Digital Wave students were real scientists.  A scientist’s job is to observe the world and ask questions. They always want to know how something works or how something is affected by something else. So students went on a boat ride through the channels and open waters of West Lake with a nature guide, and visited the exhibit hall to learn more about the natural environments. Job #1: Observe and Listen. Job #2: Ask questions. Job #3: Take notes and draw sketches of what you see. And of course one of the most important jobs:  enjoy the nature around you. For those readers (a.k.a. scientists) also taking notes, there are 3 types of mangrove tree: red, black, and white. As you may have guessed, you can tell them apart by their coloring, but also by the shape of their leaves and where they prefer to grow. Red mangroves grow closer to the shoreline, and white and black prefer slightly more inland. Mangroves also take advantage of living on the shore – seedlings drift in the water’s currents, and grow rapidly when they find a spot they like. Mangrove forests play an important role in the ecosystem for fish and for humans, so scientists (a.k.a. all of us) need to keep an eye on them.

Tags: Anne Kolb Nature Center

We do our best to keep in touch with all the awesome students who participate in our programs here at the Museum. Some particularly exceptional students, like Barbara Escobar, make that easy for us. Barbara, a student at North Miami Senior High School, previously participated in the Digital WAVE Summer Academy, where she studied the effects of climate change on South Florida’s coral reefs. During the program, Dr. Andrew Baker, Associate Professor of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the University of Miami, spoke to Digital WAVE participants about his research on corals and the impacts of the terrible Deepwater Horizon oil spill. After that talk, Barbara was inspired to start her own environmental science research. With help from Museum staff, Barbara got in touch with Dr. Baker and worked with graduate student mentors at the Coral Reef Conservation Research Laboratory. She concentrated on studying the use of dispersants, which are used to mitigate the effects of crude oil on corals. This past year, she entered her project in her school’s science fair and won first place. Congratulations Barbara!

Tags: Andrew Baker, Barbara Escobar, coral, Coral Reef Conservation Research Laboratory, Deepwater Horizon, Digital Wave, Marine Biology and Fisheries, oil spill, University of Miami

Dr. Annmarie Eldering works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. She recently met with students in the Digital Wave program, to tell them about her job and what inspired her to follow her career path. That career path has been pretty amazing, and students had soooo many questions. Dr. Eldering work involves extracting information about clouds, aerosols, and trace gases in the Earth’s atmosphere with satellites and remote sensing instruments. And she is the Deputy Project Scientist on the soon-to-be-launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, which will map CO₂ in the Earth’s atmosphere, basically “watching the Earth breathe.” And how did this awesome career path begin? It’s simple. An interest in chemistry and math, and wanting to know what stuff is made of.

Tags: Annmarie Eldering, JPL, NASA, OCO-2 satellite

Do you see south Florida in our Digital Wave island? Students have teamed up in groups to represent different regions of south Florida, which you can see outlined by 5 plots of land. We have: the Kissimmee River and the upper lakes… Lake Okeechobee, Farmlands, and Water Conservation Areas… Coasts and Estuaries… the Everglades… and Urban Areas. Groups will work together to research their region, how water flows through it, and how the region and water sources may be affected by climate change. Another twist? The groups have to work with each other, because water in one region doesn’t stay in that region, it flows from one region to the other. Stay tuned for more progress!

Tags: Everglades, Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, Second Life, Water Conservation Areas

On Saturday February 4 we kicked off the spring Digital WAVE Saturday Design Studio. This semester, groups will develop 3D virtual world exhibits of south Florida’s waterways, from the Kissimmee River and the Upper Chain of Lakes, through Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, mangrove coasts, and out to sea and the coral reefs. The class will focus on how these systems are connected, and how climate change might impact them in the future. This week, we started off by creating models of aquifers, which are natural underground water reservoirs. We learned that the Biscayne Aquifer in south Florida is an example of an unconfined aquifer – the top portion is the water table and it merges with Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. This means that the water supply can be easily contaminated. It also means that the more water we use, and the higher the sea levels rise, the more salt water will intrude into the wells which provide us with fresh water. So who’s on board with us to conserve water?

It’s that time of year, and a new term of Digital WAVE is about to start on February 4th! In late January, Digital WAVE staff held evening orientation events for new students at the North Miami Public Library and at Miami Northwestern Senior High School. We were happy to get the chance to meet students and their families for the first time, and share information about the program. This spring, students can look forward to a Career day event, a field trip to Anne Kolb Nature Center, speaking with NASA scientists, and creating their own 3D virtual exhibits on climate change and south Florida.Special thanks to all those who took time out of their week to attend. See you soon!

All good things come to an end, and the Fall 2011 session of Digital WAVE came to a close with a fun and inspirational event for students and their families. Throughout Digital WAVE, students had worked toward designing and building 3D projects in the virtual world of Second Life. These projects highlighted some aspect of climate change and how it affects south Florida environments such as mangroves forests and coastlines. Families were invited to the event, and saw that their sons and daughters had created 3D virtual factories emitting greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, virtual sea levels rising and inundating mangrove coastlines, and lots more. Students received their Digital Wave Certificates, and everyone enjoyed refreshments and photos!

One of the students' 3D climate change exhibit projects

Some of the Digital WAVE students having fun with photos before the Family Event

Tags: Digital Wave

This year in Digital WAVE, students are learning all about climate change and how it is related to south Florida environments – specifically mangroves. During class time they are using the same technology and software that scientists, animators, and designers use to model complex systems or create graphics for movies. And students have been using this technology at a state-of-the-art design lab at Miami Dade College-North Campus in order to design their own mangrove trees, which will be part of a 3D virtual exhibit they are creating.

Even though students have the incredible opportunity to create mangroves in a 3D virtual environment, there is also nothing like seeing mangroves in the 3D real environment. So the Digital WAVE students embarked on a trip to Biscayne National Park to go canoeing among the real mangroves. They learned about mangroves’ importance as marine habitats and as a kind of protection for us against the full force of hurricanes. The experience in this fun “outdoor lab” has inspired even more creativity when the students returned to the fun indoor lab. Some students may have temporarily ended up out of the canoe and in the water – but that’s all part of the fun.

Tags: Biscayne National Park, mangroves

Where on Earth could you really prepare for the challenges of space? As it turns out, it’s right in our back yard. NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project) sends NASA employees to live in Aquarius – an underwater laboratory right off the Florida Keys, to prepare for space travel. Aquarius is located 3.5 miles off Key Largo, and 62 feet under the surface of the water, and NEEMO crewmembers live there for up to 3 weeks at a time. NEEMO missions include astronaut training and testing equipment required for exploring asteroids.

Now use your imagination. Think about trying to accomplish a task that would be pretty simple on land. Shoveling sand. Inserting a screw into machinery. Holding still. Picking up a rock. Breathing. Now imagine doing those tasks underwater (or in space). All these things that we take for granted in our every day lives become much more difficult in space, and trying it out underwater is great practice.

On Saturday October 22^nd, 85 participants, including Digital WAVE students, attended an event that featured a live webcast with NEEMO crew, in which they learned about NEEMO missions first hand. Other participants included teachers who were attending a professional development training for APEX (After-School Program Exploring Science), and other high school students from the Upward Bound Math & Science program. During the Q&A with NEEMO crew, participants asked about the challenges of asteroid exploration, and how astronauts train for it. During the daylong event, students also participated in activities stationed throughout the Museum related to asteroid composition, gravity and buoyancy, and projectile motion. And of course, what day would be complete without being able to make and analyze your own impact craters?

Tags: Aquarius, NEEMO, NEO