A new collaboration between BIOS, Arizona State University’s (ASU’s) Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, and the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) resulted in an exciting learning opportunity for Bermudian students this summer. The weeklong “Innovations for the Environment” experiential training course was offered July 4 to 8 through BIOS’s Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program, which is part of the Institute’s Ocean Academy.

What do playdough and underwater robots have in common? Both are tools being used by BIOS’s Ocean Academy to teach students about circuits, reinforcing concepts that are part of the Primary 6 (U.S. grade 5) Physics curriculum for Bermuda’s public schools.

Melissa Hicks is a professor at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York where she teaches introductory courses in geology and oceanography, including a study abroad program in marine ecology of the Bahamas. For the last two years, she’s also been interested in finding ways of incorporating real-world ocean science data into her curriculum.

BIOS’s Ocean Academy helped coordinate a unique learning opportunity for local schools when a NASA science mission moved its flight operations from the U.S. to Bermuda for three weeks beginning earlier this month.

The plastic arrives on Bermuda’s beaches as discarded toothbrushes, sun-bleached bottle caps, forgotten toys, and pulverized pieces the size of rice grains. The reason why is disheartening. The island sits within one of the world’s largest oceanic garbage patches, where four major currents in the North Atlantic force marine debris into an accumulation of floating trash.

BIOS was well-represented this month at the first Bermuda Climate Summit, which began with a reception and dinner the evening of May 24 and continued with a conference the following day. The inaugural event was designed to “bring together leaders from business, science, and public policy sectors to explore solutions and opportunities” to address climate risk protection, according to the summit’s agenda.

When foam cups are lowered in a mesh bag deep into the ocean, will they dissolve? Just get wet? Or maybe a shark will eat them? These were the initial predictions made by 7- and 8-year-old students at St. George’s Preparatory school this month as they completed a new, two-part lesson offered by the BIOS Curriculum Enrichment Program on “Force: The Science of Ocean Pressure.”

BIOS Ocean Academy alumna Emma O’Donnell will take her interest in environmental sustainability a step further this fall at the University of Oxford in England with a Rhodes Scholarship, focusing her graduate work on studies of sustainability, enterprise, and the environment.

Growing up in Bermuda, Jessica Godfrey developed a fascination with the local corals and other sea life. While attending the island’s Saltus Grammar School, she studied oceanography, narrowing her interest to marine biology.

Several dozen of Bermuda’s upper elementary and middle school teachers participated in a professional development workshop over the recent half-term break, which ran from February 14 to 18 for the island’s public schools. The workshops aimed to provide educators with tangible examples of how biodiversity data collected by BIOS from the deep sea in and around Bermuda are being used to support the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) around the island as part of the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme (BOPP). As BIOS is one of the three partnering organizations in BOPP, along with the Waitt Institute and the Government of Bermuda, the collaboration was a natural fit and an opportunity for BIOS to share how the work of its scientists is being leveraged in broader decision-making efforts.