Dayton teacher attends Naval Academy training

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Linda M. Flaherty, a teacher at Dayton High School, is attending the 25th annual session of the distinguished Maury Project Workshop offered by the U.S. Naval Academy. Flaherty is one of 24 teachers from around the country attending the workshop from now through July 20.

The Maury Project is designed to give science teachers and science supervisors an in-depth study of various oceanographic and meteorological subjects including waves, tides, density and wind-driven oceanographic circulations and ocean-atmosphere interactions. The workshop equips teachers with training and teaching materials that can be used in their classrooms. They will participate in lectures, tutorials, research cruises, hands-on laboratory exercises and field trips. This year, the program will host teachers from 16 different states around the country, one from Germany, and one from Canada, who’s sponsored by the Canadian Meteorology and Oceanography Society.

David Smith, retired professor and former chairman of the Naval Academy oceanography department, and Wendy Abshire, Education Director of the American Meteorological Society, will serve as co-directors of the Maury Project Workshop. Speakers featured in the workshop include oceanographers and senior scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Maryland at College Park, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the United States Navy.

“The Maury Project achieves a special milestone this year, reaching its 25th year as a workshop for teachers on topics in physical oceanography. To put this in perspective, most programs promoting professional teacher development have a lifetime of about 3-4 years. Due to the generous contribution of its sponsors, the Maury Project has reached approximately 600 teachers directly and perhaps as many as 25,000 teachers indirectly through its innovative peer-training model over the years.” Smith notes, “A goal is to train as many teachers as possible including those who are members of groups underrepresented in the sciences and/or teach significant numbers of pre-college students from underrepresented groups.”

The Maury Project Workshop is named in honor of Navy Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury, who lived from 1806 until 1873 and is considered to be the founder of physical oceanography and is funded by the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration. The workshop is made possible by support from the United States Naval Academy, the American Meteorological Society, and California University of Pennsylvania.