A Step Beyond

Exploring physical oceanography through dance

Oct 29, 2019
Creative expression of a mooring pushed around by ocean currents.

Today I had the opportunity to participate in an unusual class setting: At A Step Beyond in Escondido, CA, I talked to 5th and 6th graders about some of the observational methods we use in physical oceanography. In between the lessons, the students, together with their dance teacher Roxanne Rojas de Blanco, came up with dance moves to transform what they had just learned into a choreography. With a lot of creative energy the students danced ships in stormy seas and subsurface moorings knocked over by strong currents. Many thanks to Roxanne and my colleague Larry Pratt from WHOI for organizing this workshop and to the National Science Foundation for financial support through our Samoan Passage research project!

Larry Pratt explaining the origins of water on earth to the class.
samoan-passage outreach
Physical Oceanographer

My research focus are small-scale physical oceanic processes and their role for the global ocean circulation.