5 days 1 hour from now
Profile
Nicole Kurtz recently obtained her BFA in Medical Illustration from the Cleveland Institute of Art with a Minor in Fiber and Material Studies. Upon completion of her degree, she developed a thesis focused on the necessity of art in the scientific discovery. She created a curriculum concentrated on the multiple learning strategies present in the classroom and the need for unconventional, dynamic, and innovative interactive learning tools. The curriculum contained a series of games and activities to benefit the multiple ways that students learn, as well as benefiting the teachers and school systems as a whole. By catering to the diverse learning strategies, she was able to create activities that are cross-disciplinary allowing teachers to share between subjects and lesson plans. Needing to prove the games were actually improving the comprehension of scientific materials, she organizes and led groups of students (young and old) in a series of play-tests. Her techniques utilize skills of authoring, communicating, leading and designing scientific content and translating it for the lay audiences as well as the science community.
Nicole continues to develop curricula, activities and lesson plans by working with the camps and classes departments at the Great Lakes Science Center, Children’s Museum of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She is also expanding her exhibit design skills by assisting in the redesign of current exhibits with the International Woman’s Air and Space Museum located in downtown Cleveland.
Currently, she utilizes her skills of communication and design to create medical posters, charts and graphs, 3D models, 2D and 3D animations, and interactive timelines to be used as demonstratives in the court room. She works closely with lawyers to distill the complex information of the case into an easily accessible informative graphic for the jury to understand. From her experiences, she has acquired a strong ability to communicate visually to a vast range of audiences.
Nicole Kurtz's blog
Education Team Facts and Figures
The Education Team has put together a report highlighting some of our accomplishments during the cruise. We broke some records this expedition, and that was in part thanks to all of the support and help from the scientists with the broadcasts and activities. We put this document together to show everyone how influential and inspiring their work is to students all over the world.
Reflection
We only have a few days left on board, and with all of our projects coming to an end, there is time left to reflect (I’ll keep the water related puns to a minimum) on this experience.
Teacher Resource: Group Guides - PaleoMag
Here's the Paleomagnetics poster for the Group Guide series. I've attached a high-res version below.
The Pmag group for this expedition includes Antony Morris, Sarah Friedman, and Andrew Horst. If they were a band, they'd be called Tony and the Magnetics.
Teacher Resource: Group Guides - Structure Team
Here's the next poster in the Group Guides series. This one details the Structural Geology Team's duties in the labs on the JR.
Teacher Resource: Group Guides - Phys Props
I've been working on a new edition of the Tales of the Resolution comic over the last few weeks. Now that the script is mostly done, I can move on to Phase Two: Photo Collection.
Happy Endings
In the last few days, this expedition has gone from the lowest of the low recovery rates to close to the highest of the high. There's been a real change of pace with core on deck every few hours. The scientists wake up to start their shift with 30 to 40 new meters of core to describe. And that's pretty flippin' awesome considering the slow-going and hardships in the beginning of the cruise.
Strategy: The Name of the Game
The gloves are coming off for these sample requests, and unfortunately it’s been terribly fun for me to watch. Because of the collaboration condition, people are strategizing and carefully selecting the perfect piece of core. The problem is that’s only half the battle. Odds are another group could be gunning for the same section. So what do you do then? Compromise?
Science with a Little Bit of Humor
The Education team has a wall outside of our office where we place images, video feedback, notes, updates, etc to inform the scientists on board what we're doing. It's been quite effective, as we notice most people stop on their way out the door to see what's new.
Post Cruise Research Planning
Well, it’s that time everyone. The time to start thinking about what we’ll do with all the information we’ve collected while at sea. The time to revise the initial research plans that got us out here, the time to figure out logistics and schedules and figure out what samples we’ll need.
