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I'm Bryan Hirschman. I'm a Teacher at Sea alumni now. I went out this past year on the
Miller Freeman. I am from Vermont, and I was proud to be the
first Vermont teacher selected. . . . Teacher of Chemistry and Marine Biology.
I started a marine biology program at my school in Barre, Vermont. It took me four years of
going to the principal and the school board until it was finally approved. Basically,
I kept getting denied every year. And the reason they were denying me, they said we're
not even near the ocean, why would you want to teach marine biology? So, presentation
upon presentation, finally they understood that the ocean affects everyone. And so, whether
it's our climate, whether food, tourism--the ocean's pretty important, so I started the
program. Every year for the three years prior to getting the course I took different courses
to try to learn more about marine biology. Then I finally got the class and then got
to be on the boat with the Teacher at Sea program. I use the information, I bring up
NOAA I'd say at least four times a week, so, constantly talking about NOAA, what they do.
I'm so fortunate to have a relationship with them and I'm glad they brought me to Philadelphia.
This is for all you people who are going to be Teachers at Sea. It's a great program,
it's amazing. Life on the ship is great. The crew are spectacular, they're very helpful.
It's great food, so I would definitely bring workout clothes. I like to hit the gym late
at night because I eat enough for four people. They feed you all hours of the day, the mess
hall's open so be careful about that. Because I found myself eating dinner normally and
then eating with the guys who work the night crew later on, and then I found myself having
snacks throughout the entire day. As far as things you need to bring, I kept
busy the whole time, I didn't really need to entertain myself at all. I was always outside
during the daylight, there was a lot of work to be done and then at night pretty much just
hung out with crew members, and they talked about what they did and experiences and that
was pretty neat. I met a lot of great people. And then in port, I got to go into Victoria,
which was really nice, with a survey tech, and he showed me all around Victoria, and
that was a great experience as well. What I brought back to the classroom is a
knowledge of actually what goes on with scientists, what they really do when they're in the field.
As a teacher, sometimes we think we know what goes on, and for the most part we're right,
but to actually have that experience, to say to the students: This is what an acoustic
scientist does. This is what a marine biologist does. And so I think that was the really neat
part about it. And in addition, I think I'm trying to push students toward the NOAA core,
because, I had no idea, anything about the NOAA core, and I think NOAA core is awesome.
There's officers who run the boat for students interested in that type of thing. It's science
and boating, what could be better than that? Science and motors and engines, you can be
an engineer. So I like that.