Learn about the PLRP’s operations, and tour the field site with Heather and Ben!

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Stephanie Nebel and Jonathan Gutsche answer an important distinction between two very different underwater vehicles! To ask your question, visit www.astrobio.net and search for the Pavilion Lake Research Project, or click this link: www.tinyurl.com/askplrp.

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Damien McCombs answers questions about his job as PLRP First Aid Attendant. To ask your question, visit www.astrobio.net and search for the Pavilion Lake Research Project, or click this link: www.tinyurl.com/askplrp.

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Hi everyone! I’m Heather Paul, a mechanical engineer from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. I’m very excited to join the Pavilion Lake Research team this year! I’ve been working on the education and public outreach aspects of the analog missions (just got home from NEEMO 14 a few weeks ago!), so I’m here to make sure that the world gets to learn about the fantastic science and exploration activities happening here at Pavilion Lake.

Most of the team arrived yesterday (including me), and we’re already off to a great start…Today we connected with students participating in the NASA Science, Technology, and Exploration Program (STEP). Several scientists from the PLRP team talked about the field activities, mission goals, and why microbialites are just so cool, all live from the lake!

I watched from the roadside as the team prepped the barge that will transport the submersibles to the various science points along the lake. It was amazing to watch as piece by piece the barge was put together, and then finally the two Deepworkers were carefully lowered to the platform.

We are all set for our first round of flights tomorrow! Stay tuned, exciting science adventures are just around the corner and we can’t wait to share them with you!

Introducing: Heather Paul! Newest member of the PLRP EPO team!

Question from Astrobiology Magazine regarding other microbialite supporting lakes around the world. Answered by Dr. Margarita Marinova. To ask your question, visit www.astrobio.net and search for the Pavilion Lake Research Project, or click this link: www.tinyurl.com/askplrp.

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Scientific conferences are great places to share your results, and receive constructive feedback from the scientific community about your research. This week, the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) will draw over 16,000 geoscientists to San Francisco, including many members of the PLRP, to discuss the most current and relevant topics in geoscience. These meetings are valuable for individual researchers and groups like the PLRP to share successes and challenges of doing research in environments like Pavilion Lake (and in many other fields of science). It’s also a great time to reconnect with colleagues from around the world, sharing ideas and working on some of the most interesting and difficult questions in science. Included in this year’s AGU fall meeting is a gathering of Pavilion Lake scientists, to discuss last year’s data, and next year’s field research. I’m excited to think about the next phase of exploration at Pavilion Lake, and certainly excited to see the team again! I’m about to board my flight from Calgary to Salt Lake City to San Francisco, and will write about some of the great science from there.  In the meantime, search for #AGU09 on Twitter to see what other groups of scientists are saying about this year’s AGU fall meeting.

-Ben

This is a question that we ask our students on the first day of school in September. Boy, we have some interesting things to share on our first day of school. This summer, we travelled together to the Pavilion Lake Research Project to learn about the science that is being done here and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. During the year Bree and I are both immersed in the classroom, and most of the time we are teaching science. Today we have found ourselves writing a blog which neither of us have done before. We seem to be entertaining the people around us with our different ideas of how best to compose one of these, and we will find out if we get a gold star later. The crew here have been very welcoming and happy to share about what they do here. In fact, our first night here we were allowed to get inside one of the DeepWorker submersibles which are used during the scientist flight missions (we were still on dry land, but still very cool). Part of us being here at Pavilion Lake was to integrate teachers into the different activities that go on here, and integrate us they did.

From left, Bree Riddell, Ricky Arnold and Jen Stonehouse

So we are sure you are wondering what we were were able to do at the lake. Unfortunately we were not allowed to drive the subs but we had many other cool opportunities to be part of the team. We sat in on science meetings, pilot meetings, classified data from the submersibles, talked to scientists and astronauts, observed the launches of the submersibles and helped record data from the flights as a science stenographer. One of things that we did was classify the images returned from the underwater flights. During the flights images of what the pilots see is recorded on camera. The pilots see very cool things when on their mission – microbialites. After the mission this data then has to be classified. We looked at images to identified what was in the image – microbialites, algae, rocks, sediment, trash – oh my! This is something that can easily be transferred to the classroom. We classify every day just like the scientists (just on a different level). As the team here classifies these images for science and further understanding, students can also classify these images in the process of learning how to do science. Trust us (or read the rest of these blogs if you don’t), microbialites are very interesting!

How did we do with our first blog? Did we get a gold star?

-Jen and Bree

Community Day was a great success this year - with nearly 100 visitors from Pavilion Lake, the surrounding communities, and as far away as Kamloops

On Saturday evening, the PLRP opened its doors to the Pavilion Lake community! Roughly 100 people visited our community open house to learn about our project and how we study the lake they call home. We especially enjoyed the enthusiastic questions, the smiles and good wishes from everyone who attended the event.

Community members were invited into the Mobile Mission Command Center to check out our communications and lab equipment.

We are very grateful for the support of the community at Pavilion Lake and the Ts’kw’aylaxw First Nation. Thank you all, from PLRP.

-Ben

I arrived at Pavilion Lake this afternoon, and it’s as beautiful a place as I remember. Coming to the lake is always a special time of year and it’s great to see everyone on the team that you’ve missed over the past year.

This blog entry is about how you can keep up to date with the activities of the PLRP during this year’s field season. Through this blog we will provide daily updates about our science activities (both DeepWorker-based and surface-based). These blogs will include photos, videos and maps generated from our dives, and will be our primary communication tool during the field season. Our public calendar is available on our website, and will include important announcements from the team. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook by clicking the “Follow Me” link on the right of this page.

If you are in the local area of Pavilion Lake, we will host our Annual Community Open House on Saturday July 11 at 7:00PM, all are welcome to attend. Here we provide a short presentation about the ongoing science activities and give you a chance to meet the science and exploration team.  For more info about community day, please email me (brcowie@ucalgary.ca) and I’ll try to get you the information you need!

I’m looking forward to a great science and exploration season at Pavilion Lake. Good luck to all the DeepWorker pilots for successful flights and great science returns!

~Ben

Pavilion Lake, BC

Arguably, the most important part of doing science is telling people about your discoveries. It is only when you share your results that your experiments can be verified, and others can learn from your successes (and yes, mistakes)! However, a different type of communication is called Education and Public Outreach, or EPO. Education and Public Outreach covers a broad range of activities, from those as simple as arranging visits to schools from our scientists or developing this blog, to more complicated programs like podcasts and website design. These types of activities make science both accessible and exciting!

This year the PLRP is engaged in several EPO activities with teachers, students and Pavilion Lake community members so we can share our excitement about the lake with others. For example, on the evening of July 11 we will host our annual Community Day and Open House, where the local community is encouraged to come to the Lake, meet our team, and discuss our science and exploration activities. Our science team has benefitted greatly in the past on Community Day from hearing stories from the local community about the lake and its history. As always we are looking forward to seeing familiar faces, and meeting new people who are interested in our project at Pavilion Lake.

Ben Cowie (right) speaking about Pavilion Lake at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Richmond, BC with teacher Leanne Shortridge (left)

A second project we are developing is a field science integration program for elementary and high school teachers. This year the PLRP will host several teachers at Pavilion Lake for a few days during field operations. During their time in the field, they will have the opportunity to work alongside our science team, receiving hands-on experience doing real field science.  Our aim is to provide these teachers with the materials and experience to train the next generation of young scientists.

Another unique opportunity we have developed this year is a partnership with Shad Valley – UBC Campus. Shad Valley (www.shad.ca) is a summer camp for talented high school students interested in science and engineering. In the field, we will touch base regularly with the Shad students via videoconference, simulating a discussion between an active science operation in space and Mission Control on Earth. This program will give the students insight into a large-scale science operation, develop their interest in space, robotics and analogue research, and help them develop inquiry skills by developing scientific questions for the scientists at the Lake. I am excited to work with some young and very bright people at Shad Valley. Welcome, Shads!

With all the amazing science happening at Pavilion Lake, our team thinks it’s important to share with the community around us, and around the world. By developing effective EPO, we hope to make our science accessible, exciting and engaging for everyone.

Cheers,

Ben Cowie
EPO Project Lead, PLRP