CARBOOCEAN-IP

Marine carbon sources and sinks assessment

“Global Change and Ecosystems” (511176)

The Norwegian CarboSchool project

CARBOOCEAN

• 5 year Integrated Project on marine carbon sources and sinks funded by the EC with 14.5 Million € (FP6)

• 35 international partners from 14 countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the USA)

• cooperation with 8 research institutes from the US, Canada and Switzerland

• coordinated by the University of Bergen through an International Project Office in Norway

• http://www.carboocean.org for further information

CARBOOCEAN

• aims at an accurate scientific assessment of the marine carbon sources and sinks within space and time

• will determine the ocean’s quantitative role for uptake of atmospheric CO2 (fundamental for all realistic prognostic climate simulations)

• Aims to reduce the present uncertainties in the quantification of net annual air-sea CO2 fluxes by a factor of 2 for the world ocean and by a factor of 4 for the Atlantic Ocean

• with special focus on the Atlantic and Southern Oceans of -200 to +200 years from now

Norwegian CarboSchools project

• 25 pupils and science

teachers from Bergen Katedral-

skole (upper secondary school)

on board of the RV Hans

Brattstrøm to investigate sea

water in Hjeltefjorden

(25.08. and

01.09.2006)

Hands-on experiments

• RV Hans Brattstrøm is equipped

with a plankton net, a water

sampler and a sensor for

hydrography measurements

• Depth, temperature, salinity, and

oxygen measurements and

investigation of plankton

Pupil’s job

• Perform the experiments on their own

• Collect all relevant data

• Analyse data and write a report

• Take pictures of scientificinstruments and plankton

• Provide two posters for the CARBOOCEAN second annual meeting to give feedback to the scientists and the general public

And the others• 2 scientists/technicians: explain the

scientific background, what is measured, and demonstrate experiments

• 3 teachers: encourage and guide the students, assist with experiments

• 2 journalists: write a newspaper article for ”Bergens Tidende” (BT, Norway)

• CARBOOCEAN project office: provide background information,write for the university newspaper, take pictures + film recordings, get feedback from all participants,inform the scientists and encourage further projects

”Bergens Tidende” newspaper article

both available at http://www.carboocean.org

”Bjerknes Times” article

Time frame• April 2005 establish CarboSchools

• May 2005 contact potential Norwegian schools

• Aug 2005 present CarboSchools to the teachers at Bergen Katedralskole and discuss cooperation

• Dec 2005 invite teachers to BCCR, present research group, research topics, laboratories, and discuss potential school

projects

• Jan/Feb 2006 translation of the CarboSchool booklet into Norwegian

• Spring 2006 further discussions of coop. in rel. to the school curriculum

• May 2006 CarboNordic start-up workshop

• Aug. 2006 CarboSchools research cruises to Hjeltefjorden

• Sep/Oct 2006 students work with the cruise data and write reports

• Mar/Apr 2007 Investigate water around Bergen together with pupils from different countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden)

• May 2007 enter water data into a Nordic/international web site to map “The sea in front of our door”, a cooperation with upper secondary schools abroad

• Advantages/what made it a success?- highly motivated teachers- curious students- new national upper secondary school curriculum which acknowledge scientific projects- different aspects of a science projects; e.g. chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology, language, international cooperation, etc. - motivated scientists/technicians

• Disadvantages/what could be improved?- more motivated scientists- acknowledge the school cooperation preformed by fellow scientist as a valuable part of their scientific work- economic support for simple instruments, travel, etc.

• Tips- try to get in contact with schools in the neighbourhood (to make it more convenient)- start simple- get ideas from others who are cooperating with schools and use the web

Norwegian CarboSchools brochure

CARBOOCEAN brochure