Stacey Sebert, Capital Region MT Emeritus, has been selected by Rutgers University for a 14-day research expedition for secondary science educators, “PUFINS at Sea” which seeks to reconstruct temperature changes over the last 10,000 years.
Stacey will join Rutgers University scientists aboard their research vessel (R/V) Atlantis where she will have the opportunity to learn about and experience scientific coring practices used to study fluxes in sediments that are used by researchers to better understand historic and predictive climate and oceanographic data. Stacey will hold webinars while onboard with students not only in her South Colonie school district but several other districts throughout the country. She’ll board the Atlantis at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts and conduct coring in the offshore waters of New Jersey and Nova Scotia.
PUFINS stands for Paleo Unsaturated-alkenone Fluxes In Northwest-Sediments. During the expedition, scientists hope to recover cores from the Holocene period (the last ~12,000 years) to reconstruct sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean by examining the changes in alkenones recorded in the fossils found in the sediments.
Learn more by visiting the PUFINS at Sea Site where you will also be able to follow Stacey’s journey.
PUFINS at Sea also has a Facebook page to follow along.
Check out the PUFINS at Sea YouTube trailer here.