HPWREN Participates in Green Day LIVE Between Santa Margarita and Fleet Science Center

By Kimberly Mann Bruch (HPWREN and StSS)

On May 16, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center patrons celebrated Green Day by participating in an array of activities - including an HPWREN Live Interactive Virtual Explorations (LIVE) demonstration with biologists and students at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. The Health Science High students were able to share water quality and photosynthesis data that they were collecting at the reserve in real-time with Science Center patrons via LIVE technology.

Additionally, Science Center participants experimented with a water sensor equipped with pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pressure, and conductivity sensors. The sensor, which displays information using a small laptop, is explained in detail at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/news/20090324/.

The LIVE setup at the Science Center included two laptops running Skype with dual audio adapters, headsets, external microphones, and external speakers. One of the laptops was sending and receiving information from a static LIVE setup at the reserve while the other laptop was sending and receiving information from a roving LIVE setup at the reserve.

The roving LIVE setup was the communication tool between the Science Center and the high school students while the static setup allowed for communication between Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve biologists.

This activity provided the team with a venue to experiment with a new LIVE setup. The primary lesson learned was the importance of both ends having a dedicated person running the setup as otherwise there is confusion regarding who is listening and then speaking with the other end.

A nine-year-old boy talks with a scientist at Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve during the LIVE activity at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. While the boy is communicating via a headset microphone, additional Science Center patrons were able to listen in on the discussion via external speakers attached to the laptop, which is running Skype for the real-time video and audio communications.

High school students collect data from the Santa Margarita River and share details about their findings in real-time via the LIVE activity between SMER and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.

California Mediterranean Learning Center intern Sarina Cassaro (pictured here) worked with Kim Bruch of HPWREN at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center during the recent Green Day LIVE activity with Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve

In addition to the LIVE activity with SMER scientists, Green Day participants at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center were able to experiment with a real-time water sensor to measure an array of properties such as pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, pressure, and conductivity.

The Green Day LIVE activity allows California Mediterranean Learning Center intern Kelly Lion to explain water quality sensors at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve and discuss an array of environmental science concepts with Reuben H. Fleet Science Center patrons. (Click on image to run a 7.8MB MPEG-1 video)

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