In our modern world of of GPS, when it seems like there is no frontier left, the ocean floor remains largely unexplored and unmapped. This website, hosted by National Geographic, follows the crew and scientists aboard the Nautilus. The crewmembers’ most recent mission was from June to November 2013 to explore the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, mapping geological, biological, archaeological and chemical aspects of these areas to depths of about 2000 meters. Highlights of the trip included new discoveries of shipwrecks.
The beauty of this website is that it allows the general public- elementary school students, college professors and scientists, and average curious people- to connect with the crew. The website includes pictures from the missions, including this one of the bow of a shipwreck.
Additionally, the site provides videos of the ship’s robots, Hercules and Argus, at work, collecting samples thousands of feet below the surface. This is an image of Hercules using a temperature probe to test an underwater volcano:
The most interesting part of this website is that during missions, it connects directly to the crew aboard the ship. It shows a live video feed of the ship’s activities and allows students and the public to chat live with the Nautilus’s educators, who respond on an audio feed to students’ typed questions.
Finally, the site includes helpful links for teachers and kids, including interactive mapping and robotic design games to encourage and inspire future geographers to explore the ocean frontier.
http://www.nautiluslive.org/
I really enjoyed exploring this website. The connection with the scientists via live feed reminds me of the astronaut Chris Hadfield who would entertain classrooms all over the world from space. I also find it really interesting that we know more about the thousands of miles of atmosphere and space above us but very little about the hundreds of miles of ocean and earth below. Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is a really cool idea for a website! I really enjoyed looking at the calendar of exploration missions, especially because of the wide array of topics being researched. The team has some cool ideas and research objectives; trips that set out to discover oil and gas impact and ones that looked at impacts of volcanos eruptions on the seafloor were especially interesting. The whole structure of the website really increases viewer involvement and interest in marine life. It is pretty scary and amazing that there is much more we can learn about the ocean!
This is so cool! I love how accessible it is to all levels of scientists! I really enjoyed watching the videos and appreciated that they addressed a number of important issues through the Nautillus’ explorations and projects. The site’s “for educators” section also really intrigued me, I hope teachers are helping to engage their students by applying their skills through these real examples. I thought the site was really fun and educational!
This website is really interesting. I think it’s true that the oceans still need to be explored. But this website is a great way for the public to connect with the research and kind of feel like they are a part of it. Reading the abstract, it reminds me of the Titanic movie and how they were exploring the seas as well.
I really love this website, because it is well designed, easy to navigate, and overall presents a great atmosphere for learning for people of all ages with an interest in the expansion of knowledge of some of the current mysteries of our world. What interests me about this project/expedition is how interactive people can be in the process – the fact that educators and students of any level can follow a research experiment or data acquisition in real time is phenomenal and could really inspire passion for science and discovery. From what I’ve watched and read, the scientists associated with the expedition do a great job at relating the information to be understood regardless of your level of scientific knowledge. Also, I saw that they will be launching a Nautilus space exploration program as well, stationed in the International Space Station – which could do wonders for astronomy programs if this expedition is strongly marketed and executed as well as the oceanic exploration missions are.