EAGER: Collaborative Research: A Marine Geology and Geophysics training cruise onboard the RV SIkuliaq for potential chief scientists

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This award will enable MGG students and early career scientists to spend time at sea, collecting, processing and interpreting data to earn their degrees. While this is a critical component of their preparation, it is an incomplete introduction to the process of doing science at sea. Most students are unfamiliar with the proposal process and the role of being chief scientist aboard a research vessel. Many students spend their time at sea performing assigned tasks without responsibility or participation in cruise planning and execution. This award is designed to complete their introduction to seagoing science by giving the students the opportunityto plan and execute a science cruise based on existing data. In the future, this will provide an enhanced understanding of how to fully utilize expensive research vessels to the greatest extend possible. The students will do this by defining a hypothesis, planning a survey and executing the data collection to test the hypothesis. The project will address all of the scientific process through the combination of classroom instruction and experiential learning. The survey will be subject to the time constraints imposed by the ship schedule and the physical constraints imposed by the ship?s equipment.The educational process will begin with applicants responding to a request for proposals (RFP), which will provide a framework for the scientific possibilities for the cruise. The participants will meet in Dutch Harbor for two days prior to boarding the ship to refine a testable hypothesis and develop the cruise plan. During this time, the students will briefly present their responses to the RFP. The PIs will provide guidance on proposal writing, accessing existing data, and shipboard capabilities.The participants will board the ship early on the mobilization day. During this day there will be presentations on life at sea, safety and the initial introduction to the equipment on RV Sikuliaq. The students will be divided into two 12-hour watches. Once underway, each student will have the opportunity to be "chief scientist for the day," making decisions about the execution of the cruise and directing participants. The other students will be assigned a particular instrument for their watch. They will be responsible for monitoring this instrument, documenting that it operates correctly and reporting significant observations to the chief scientist. Studentswill cycle through the instruments, so each one encounters each piece of underway gear at least once during their time at sea.The PIs will supplement the watch-standing and chief scientist experiences with presentations about the operational principles of the instruments, data reduction and interpretation, and the geology of the seabed as we transit it. These lectures will occur daily during a change of watch. The second change of watch will consist of a review of the data collected during the previous 24 hours.As the ship approached Honolulu, the process of preparing the cruise report will begin. Each student will have a writing assignment, which contributes to the final product from the cruise, the preliminary results of their survey, and the cruise assessment.