JASON Project

What is the JASON Project? Here's what the JASON website has to say: The JASON Project is a multi-disciplinary program that sparks the imagination of students and enhances the classroom experience. From oceans to rain forests, from polar regions to volcanoes, the JASON Project explores Planet Earth and exposes students to leading scientists who work with them to examine its biological and geological development.

From the depths of dark oceans to the heights of wet rain forests, from icy Polar Regions to red-hot volcanoes, the JASON Project travels the world, taking students and teachers on an exciting educational adventure. The JASON Project brings adventure and the thrill of discovery into the classroom, exploring the following questions:

                          1.What are nature's dynamic systems?
                          2.How do these systems affect life?
                          3.What technologies do we use to study these systems and why?

Where did the JASON Project come from? The JASON Project began as the dream of Dr. Robert Ballard, the scientist and oceanographer who discovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1986. Dr. Ballard believed that enabling students and their teachers to do field work from the classroom was a powerful concept. The JASON Project was born on the basis of this powerful idea and has since grown into the world's premier real-time science teaching and learning program.

Now that you have an idea of what JASON is all about, here are some behind the scenes photos from last year's project on location in Portage and Seward, Alaska. I have been helping out with JASON in various on- and off-camera capacities since I was a "Student Argonaut" in 1994 when JASON went to Belize to study rainforests and coral reefs, among other things. I was involved in a project headed by Dr. Jerry Wellington to study the effects of ultraviolet light on coral bleeching. As I said during the live broadcasts this year, that's a far cry from the research that was being conducted in Alaska. From Ice Worms to Seal Fur, here's the beginning of the tour. These are just a few of the photos that I had handy for uploading. More images later, of course...

Behind the scenes inside the Begich Boggs Visitors Center in Portage, AK.
A select group of researchers, students, and production folk.

With the cold winter temperatures in Alaska, it didn't take long into shooting for this cheesy smile to freeze on my face.

Here's a shot of our outdoor "studio" next to Portage Lake, which is frozen over. The diffuse blue glow from the sun shining on glacier ice and low-lying fog made for a surreal atmosphere.

Some standing lenticular clouds over mountains just after sunrise in Portage. By this time, we had already shot two hours of live satellite television!... mostly in the dark.

Ok, apparently I couldn't eat my breakfast or lunch like an adult, so this full-body bib with name tag ("Messy Matty") was always around for me to spill upon. Thanks ladies!

A nice shot looking up valley over frozen Lake Portage towards the foot of Portage Glacier.

[MORE IMAGES COMING... THIS IS NEW AS OF 11/22/02]

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