In July, 13 scientific educators from all areas of life climbed to R/V Marcus G. Langseth in San Diego. The air was full of emotion and anticipation, none of us had a track of what comes next.
Until recently, the rock school, a professional development program funded by the National Science Foundation that allows science and education to converge, took place exclusively in the resolution of scientific drilling ships now retired. For the first time, this year the program united forces with Langseth, A 235-feet seismic research container owned and operated by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia climate school. The Langseth became our home in the sea while we traveled from San Diego first to Rise East Pacific, and then to the Galapagos Islands. They promised us an intensive course in Oceanography, Earth Sciences and Authentic Research at sea, but reality far exceeded our expectations.
They also promised us adventure. Thirteen days at sea? For most of us, that was an unknown territory, literally. Would we get dizzy? Would we get along? Living and working on a moving ship would prove to be challenging, or simply part of the adventure? These questions swirled through our minds while we knew each other for the first time only a few hours before the ship’s time. It did not take long to realize that we were part of an incredible team: intelligent, fun, curious and ready to learn. Uncertainty quickly gave way to camaraderie.
The calm before the big day
While the Langseth were heading towards the Galapagos, we spent our days immersed in sessions led by scientists and professors, including Leah Joseph (Ursinus College), Kaatje Kraft (Whatcom Community College), Lisa White (UCMP) and Valerie Bennett (Clark Atlanta University). Using legacy nucleus samples from Discovery Ocean International ProgramWe explore issues such as microfossils, plate tectonic and geological forces that shape the dynamic fire ring of the earth. We discuss how to translate large and messy scientific data into lessons that would generate curiosity in students.
We spent hours in the laboratories and the ship’s classroom, but there was also time to enjoy the immensity of the Pacific: scan the waves for whales and dolphins, counting fleeting stars from the stern deck and sharing meals with ship companions who quickly became friends. Even so, all this learning and linking was being built towards something bigger: the day we joined the real -time research operations at sea.
While School of Rock has always focused on the results and processes of the real science of the subsid, this year brought a unique and exciting turn. Just a couple of weeks before navigating, geophysicist Ross Parnell-TurnerFrom Oceanography scripps, and his colleagues called the leader of the Sharon Cooper program and Langseth team to ask if we would collaborate to collect some important rapid response data from the site of a recent eruption in the seabed at 9 degrees North. As educators, now we would not only learn about science, but we would be actively doing he.
Science in Action: The Ascent of the Eastern Pacific
In the middle of our trip, the Langseth arrived at the Rise del Pacífico Eastern, a martone medium -sized crest that extends quickly where the new seabed is constantly formed. A Parnell-Turner collaborator, Victoria Preston by Olin College of Engineering, approached Langseth to investigate the eruption in the hydrothermal ventilation of ethics observed for the first time in April 2025. He joined the transit to take live measures of the water column directly on the eruption and deploy seismometers in the area. Our work as new members of the Science Party was to help display scientific instruments and collect data that could reveal how the eruption is remodeling this underwater environment and the seabed.
We help to launch ocean -background seismometers, which will sit in the seabed, registering earthquakes and tremors until they recover within six months. We also use a CTD rosette (which measures conductivity, temperature and depth) to collect data and water samples to different depths, which gives scientists a snapshot of the properties of hydrothermal ventilation.
It was exciting and exhausting. The operations turned out to be mainly at night and in the early hours of the morning. Most of us were awake all night, too excited to sleep while we turn to monitor equipment, record data and see the team work with precision and purpose. This was not a simulation or an exercise in the classroom. It was science in process, and we were part of it!
It is never a boring moment in the sea
Although the “Operations Day” was the highlight of our transit, the rest of the trip was anything but boring. Among the welding lessons of the chief ship engineer, animated night card games and improvised cinema nights, we kept busy. We make a rain of ideas about lessons plans and develop new teaching resources that we will bring to the classrooms this fall. We also cross Ecuador, a milestone celebrated with a mixture of maritime tradition and welcome nonsense.
This spirit of collaboration extended to all in Langseth. The crew told us that our wonder and enthusiasm were contagious. Preston became a continuous resource, answered our endless questions and encouraged us to share the scientific process. At the end of the trip, some participants had even co -author of a summary for the meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a sign of how far we would arrive from those first tentative hours in San Diego.
Exploring the galapagos: tsunami and everything
Our trip ended with a three -day excursion in the Galapagos Islands, where we explore the unique geology and the wild life of San Cristóbal. It was the perfect cornerstone: volcanic hiking land, seeing the landscapes that inspired Darwin and connecting everything we had learned in the sea to the natural world that surrounds us. These days they were full of wonders: giant turtles in the highlands, marine lions that rested in the sand and the emotion of the snorkeling between the hammer sharks and the sea turtles. Each stop felt how to enter a living laboratory.
The trip came to an end with an unexpected turn that brought our fire ring approach to a more personal trip. A Tsunami warning was issued while we were on the island, and our hotel was evacuated as a precaution. With the galapagos briefly with high risk, we packed our bags, we clean each other quickly and wait together for the whole clean. Everything went well, but added an unforgettable footnote to an extraordinary trip. Thanks to the strong ties that we had built on the ship, our group remained calm, relied on each other and even managed to see experience as another shared adventure.
Relationships and lessons that last
Perhaps the biggest gift of the 2025 rock school was the network it created. We leave the ship with new colleagues: people we can call when we need ideas, resources or simply a talk before trying something in bold in our classrooms. We went with mentors between the scientists and the crew who shared their experience and their stories. And we went with a deeper relationship with science itself. The eruption of hydrothermal ventilation that we help investigate is no longer just a holder in a research work. It is part of our history, and we will follow the results as anxiously as our students will.
At the end of two weeks, we realized something deep: we had not suffered life at sea; We had prospered. We had acquired practical skills (who knew that welding could be so fun?) And the confidence in our ability to adapt. More importantly, we had rediscovered the feeling of astonishment that led us to science in the first place.
As educators, we will take that energy to our classrooms. We want to instill the same curiosity and emotion in our students: the belief that science is not just something you learn from a textbook; It is something you do, and with what you can get involved in many different ways.
Brandi Williams is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma. He has more than 20 years of experience as a teacher of secondary sciences, teaching a variety of subjects, from life and land sciences to physical and environmental sciences.
Edinson Aguinaga Arancibia is a ninth and tenth -tenth science teacher from Chile and now based in Brooklyn, New York, is committed to promoting an accessible and attractive learning environment for all students, with a particular approach in English language students.
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