Tara Oceans Expedition

Tara Oceans—A Unique Platform for a Global Diversity Survey

Tara Oceans is a French-led international 3-year circum-global scientific expedition that launched 4 September 2009. The expedition’s goal is to explore the biology, chemistry, and physics of the photic zone, the sunlit living membrane between the atmosphere and the deep oceans / lithosphere, and one of the most climatically important compartments of Biosphere Earth. This expedition includes experts in marine biology, ecology, oceanography, cellular and molecular biology, genomics, and bioinformatics, collaborating to build a baseline reference for the state of the modern oceans, with an emphasis towards cataloging the diversity and phylogeography of ocean organisms in the context of 375 sampling sites around the world’s oceans with matched collection of physical, chemical, and biological data.

Biosphere 2 has partnered with Tara Oceans and its outreach teams to bring this real-world oceanographic expedition to classrooms in the desert southwest, right here in Tucson Arizona. The following pages capture the efforts of two Tucson teachers to bring this expedition alive in the classrooms of Tucson middle schools (Booth Fickett, La Cima, Doolen) and high schools (TUSD). Both Victoria Milani (retired middle school teacher) and Elena Martin (high school teacher) now share their lesson plans to help students participate in the Tara Oceans expedition.

Contact

Victoria Milani
Middle School Coordinator
vlmilani@hotmail.com

Elena Martin
High School Coordinator
elena.martin@tusd1.org