The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced a nationwide contest for teams of students to choose a name for a newly acquired NOAA ocean exploration ship, and develop an education project based on a proposed name.
Students in grades 6 through 12 from all U.S. state-recognized public, private and home schools are eligible to participate. Schools, including home schools, must be in compliance with federal and state civil rights and nondiscrimination statutes. Name-based team projects may include production of studies, models, experiments, time charts and historical comparisons, as well as creative expressions in writing, song, artworks and film. Projects may be created for any student age group, K-12, should be used in a classroom setting at least once and should be able to be reproduced in other classrooms.
Ship names and supporting projects that capture the spirit of ocean exploration are encouraged. Contest guidelines, requirements, timeline and prizes for the winning team are described in detail on NOAA's Education Web site at: http://www.education.noaa.gov.
The former USNS Capable was transferred from the Navy to NOAA in a recent ceremony in Seattle. After conversion, the ship will be the only NOAA ship dedicated exclusively to exploration and research of our oceans. In service for the Navy, Capable was one of a series of "T-AGOS" class ocean surveillance ships originally designed to gather underwater acoustical data. Capable, along with its sister vessels USNS Stalwart and USNS Indomitable, saw duty as submarine detectors during the Cold War and were later modified to carry out their drug interdiction mission.
"From the beginning, the transfer of this ship represents a great value to the U.S. taxpayer and when converted, it will provide significant and long- term benefits to ocean exploration and research," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.
NOAA's ocean exploration missions include mapping and characterizing the physical, biological, chemical and archaeological aspects of the ocean; developing a more thorough understanding of ocean dynamics and interactions at new levels; developing and deploying new sensors and systems to regain U.S. leadership in ocean technology; and reaching out to the public to communicate the importance of the oceans.
Despite a long and rich history of ocean exploration and discovery, relatively little is known about what the oceans contain, what the seafloor looks like, or how the oceans function. Ocean exploration has found submerged canyons, mountain ranges, volcanoes and other intriguing topographic features but even less is known about how these features interact with the forces of ocean currents to create biologically rich and diverse marine ecosystems. New discoveries are made almost every time scientist-explorers go to sea to probe the ocean depths with new tools and sensors, yet 95 percent of Earth's deep ocean remains a mystery.
The new ocean exploration vessel will join NOAA's fleet under the direction of NOAA's Marine and Aviation Operations.
