Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Of Columbia University 1996 Open House
by Michael J. Passow,
Earth Sciences CorrespondentA "Virtual Tour of Biosphere 2" and sixteen special lectures by some of the world's leading Earth scientists highlighted the 1996 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) Open House. Held in beautiful autumn weather on 5 October, this year's program again provided teachers, students, and the general public with a once-a-year opportunity to find out about "cutting-edge geoscience" and how scientists conduct their investigations.
In the fall of 1995, Columbia announced a partnership with the Biosphere 2 project. Biosphere 2 is a 3.15 acre "collection of ecosystems" in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, AZ. LDEO scientists became involved with the Biosphere project in 1992, when they were asked to find out why carbon dioxide levels were unexpectedly low. Geochemist Wallace Broecker led a team that discovered that reactions with lime (calcium hydroxide) in concrete were forming limestone (calcium carbonate). By 1994, E dward Bass, Biosphere 2's financial backer, agreed to change management to create a more scientifically-credible program.
Scientists from Columbia and other research institutions have now established not only one of the finest controlled environments for conducting experiments ever, but also a campus for undergraduate and graduate field studies, plus a conference center for academic symposia and corporate retreats. (For more information, call (800)-828-2462, ext. 6436.)
Real-time telecommunication links provided about a hundred visitors to the Open House each hour with a visual tour of the facilities inside the Arizona facility. Seated in the Geoscience building seminar room in Palisades, NY, participants could ask the resident researchers questions about their work. Using such cross-country connections provided teachers and others with an outstanding example of how remote links can enhance education. This was the first time, but no doubt will not be the last.
Unlike the past two years, there were no special workshops for educators. Nevertheless, there were many interesting aspects of the Open House for teachers. For example, they could see a slide show and examine samples from the Ocean Drilling Program's East Coast Depository collection. Materials from the drilling ship JOIDES Resolution on display combined with talks by the curators to explain one way we can unravel the secrets of the ocean floors. Elsewhere on the LDEO campus, visitors toured displays set up in seven buildings and twelve large tents. Scientists and graduate students staffed exhibit areas to explain about marine geology, geochemistry, tree ring studies, deep-sea drilling programs, oceanography, seismology, marine biology, and many other aspects of observing the Earth that take place at Lamont.
In the Marine Biology building, visitors manipulated data to discover epicenter patterns with "Earthview Explorer", a CD-ROM-based educational program that involves classroom teachers working with scientists to develop new materials for geoscience education. Teachers could also gather ideas for classroom projects in presentations about the Ocean Drilling Program, corals and El Ni¤o, potential superconductors, scanning electron microscopes, Earth's rotating core, and tree ring cores, among many others.
Visitors could also attend special lectures on such topics as "Can Earthquakes by Predicted?" by Lynn Sykes, one of the world's foremost geophysicists; "Oceanography from Space"; "Sea Surface Temperatures of the Past"; and "Using Nuclear Submarines to Learn about Arctic Oceans."
Overall, the LDEO Open House continues to be a welcome partnership between a research-oriented institution and the general public. For more information about "Earthview Explorer" and other LDEO programs, check out: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/EV/EarthView Home.html. You may also be able to get information from the Public Relations office, (914)-365-8878.
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