Opelika teacher to spend six weeks at sea

By: Brittany Whitley Staff Writer | Opelika Auburn News
Published: June 05, 2009

Opelika Middle School teacher Ruth Meadows is doing what many do during the summer vacation — going to the ocean.

But instead of beach chairs and sand castles, Meadows will be on the 220-foot ocean vessel, the Henry B. Bigelow, collecting ocean specimens in the Mid-Atlantic. That’s because Meadows was chosen as one of 26 teachers in the country to take part in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Teacher at Sea program.

Meadows will spend about six weeks sailing the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as part of the Census of Marine Life cruise. She will dredge the sea for organisms, then count and catalog the samples while looking for new life.

“I hope I learn a whole lot. I’m sure I will,” Meadows said.

She leaves June 11.

“When we get to the area where we are going to sample we will drop a trawl (1,000 feet into the ocean),” she said. The trawl is the device that will collect the organisms.

“Later on we’ll go over the same path, but drop it to the ocean floor,” she said.

The Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone is located at the 50th parallel. In the fracture zone, two tectonic plates are moving apart, and gasses and magma move up through the ocean floor, Meadows said. The water is extremely deep there.

“Sometimes you have organisms there that aren’t anywhere else,” she said.

Meadows hopes to bring what she learns at sea back to her Global Connections in Science Class at OMS.

OMS principal Farrell B Seymore said being chosen is a “wonderful opportunity.”

“It’s an honor for her, but its all about the kids,” he said. “This will be an investment in their lives as well.”