Two DoDEA students were chosen from thousands of applicants worldwide as two of 25 “Student Argonauts” to participate on site in Alaska for the JASON XIII: Frozen Worlds expedition January 28–February 8, 2002, led by explorer and scientist Dr. Robert Ballard, best known for his discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic. The JASON Project ties the work of leading researchers from different organizations together with a year-long curriculum for participants designed to utilize multimedia tools to excite students about scientific discovery through innovative technology.

N. is a ninth grade student at Lakenheath High School in England; J. is a ninth grader at Quantico High School in Virginia. The two were chosen to join 23 other Student Argonauts, Dr. Ballard, his team of leading researchers, and eight teacher Argonauts from around the world because of their outstanding leadership skills, their enthusiasm for learning, their genuine interest in science and the JASON project, their ability to work alongside scientists, and their ability to talk about the work to thousands of other students following the expedition by Internet and television.

What is the JASON Project?
The JASON Project is a nonprofit educational program named after the mythological explorer who traveled the ancient world on his ship, the Argo. Dr. Ballard founded the Project in 1989 after receiving thousands of letters from students wanting to know how he discovered the Titanic. The innovative educational program engages middle-school students in hands-on science by taking them on real expeditions. The expeditions focus on current research in the earth, ocean, atmospheric, and space sciences, and cover a broad range of disciplines including science, math, technology, geography, geology, and language arts. In the JASON XIII: Frozen Worlds expedition, N. and J. worked hand-in-hand with a select group of researchers, teachers, and other students from around the world, studying Alaska’s unique wildlife including harbor seals, sea lions, marine birds, and ice worms; its glacial ice formations; and its weather patterns.

J. (right) and Mammal Curator Dennis Christian of the Alaska SeaLife Center perform an exam of a sea lion. [photo: Dan Splaine/JASON Foundation for Education]

Ice Worm Study The Student Argonauts performed various experiments during the two week period, including a number involving ice worms, a mysterious creature that is only found in a region ranging from Washington State to Alaska. The students compared ice worms to common earthworms, their close relatives. They created an "ice worm" farm that allowed them to examine the ice worm's response to light and heat. They looked at why ice worms prefer ice to soil and how they move and "grip" the ice. They also developed cultures of separate worm cells and compared the very unusual ice worm cell behaviors with other animal cell behaviors. The students also examined a unknown substance that spews out of a strange pore on the top of the ice worms' heads. This pore was discovered at the turn of the century and is still unexplainable.

Harbor Seal Study A unique research team of Alaskan Native subsistence hunters, state and federal scientists, and students worked together to determine the affects of global climate change, pollution, and fishing on a diminishing population of harbor seals. Native Alaskan hunters harvest the seals for food, oil, and their skins, and then allow the scientists at the SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, to analyze the remaining seal "parts." The Student Argonauts learned how to dissect harvested seal stomachs to identify the types of prey the harbor seals have been eating. They compiled research data as part of a large ongoing diet study to examine whether shifts in fish populations are affecting the harbor seal diet, which could be contributing to the seals' decline. Biosamples taken by the Student Argonauts were sent to research labs, archived at the University of Alaska Museum, and are now available for scientists all over the world to access.

N. (center) works with fellow Student Argonauts to collect tissue and blubber samples from a harbor seal. [photo: Dan Splaine/JASON Foundation for Education]	J. (left) and Alaska SeaLife Center mammalogist Lynn Turcotte compare different feed fish for the research animals. [photo: Dan Splaine/JASON Foundation for Education]
Participants from around the world Students and teachers around the world followed N. and J.'s journey via online reports and a live satellite link directly to the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. Participating schools around the world were even able to play an active role in the experiments - for example, comparing the ice worms on camera to earthworms in their classrooms, and interacting with the expedition team in Alaska in real-time through a live interactive satellite broadcast and live chats on the Internet. The general public was able to view the expedition on the National Geographic TV Channel.
More Information To find out more about JASON XIII: Frozen Worlds, and to read journal entries written by N. and J. and the other Student Argonauts, visit the Web site: http://www.jasonproject.org/jason13/.