How Students Can Experience Science and Become Researchers: Tracking MERMAID Floats in the Oceans

Description

Many of our students at the Shanghai French Middle‐High School have been living in Asia for extended periods of time and have thus experienced an earthquake; this has fostered a curiosity among the students in regards to these phenomena. As such, the science faculty has aimed at using this natural interest and has had the students take part in educational programs focused on the detection of earthquakes and seismic‐wave analysis. By working in collaboration with the MERMAID (Mobile Earthquakes Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers) project, our students are able to work on specific data recorded by several free‐floating captors located in the Indian Ocean. Because these sensors are mobile, they can record more complex signals that are then analyzed by our students working in a research setting.The article shows the ability of 8th grade students (14‐yr‐olds) to analyze unusual signals and introduces the methods they employed. The article also strongly advocates for the benefits that students acquire when research programs are open to collaboration with students, allowing them the opportunity to work with real world data.

Abstract

International audience

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