LIFE IN AN ONLINE FISHBOWL

Not long after locating the R.M.S Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the North Atlantic in 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard was swamped with letters from students everywhere asking a simple question: “How can I do what you do?”

Rather than dismissing their questions with a canned “study hard, eat your vegetables and listen to your parents”-type answer, Ballard founded the Jason Project, an interactive learning experience that directly connects students and scientists via broadband technology.

The project is just one part of the larger Needham, Mass.-based Jason Foundation that also includes the Jason Academy, which helps bring teachers up to speed in their science and technology aptitude. Named after Greek mythological heroes Jason and the Argonauts, the nonprofit organization combines video, text and online learning materials to help students experience science as it happens.

Participating schools can use the curriculum for part or all of the school year. The project culminates in a live two-week broadcast that delivers expeditions to students via satellite equipment and the Internet. Students and scientists can interact with one another in real-time, allowing students to experience the expeditions firsthand.

National Geographic, Turner Broadcasting, EDS and the U.S. Navy have all contributed to Jason in various ways. There are currently 35 sites at museums, aquariums and universities around the country that air the live expeditions on large screens for more than 1 million students and 25,000 teachers. Thirty-five students and teachers are also selected each year to join the expeditions as “Argonauts,” competing in merit-based competitions for the privilege.

John Richards, recently appointed president of the Jason Foundation, said that overcoming the technological limitations of many schools is the next hurdle for the project. He said that while he is looking to make the project more accessible to students in less technologically advanced schools, he is simultaneously trying to equip all schools with a broadband connection in order to reach as many students as possible.

“The project is sitting there waiting for broadband for happen,” he said. “We want to do more, but you're always a little compromised by the reality of the situation. What I'd like to see is more schools with broadband access because then they can really appreciate everything we're doing.”

The annual expeditions are heading into their 14th year, and past trips have taken students to Belize, the Galapagos Islands, the Sea of Cortez and the Mediterranean Sea, where Ballard and others searched for Roman ships that sank along the trade route between Rome and Carthage in the fourth century. The latest trip recently returned from Alaska, where students teamed up with a team of scientists that included a glaciologist and the world's only active ice worm researcher.

Next year, the project will embark on “Jason XIV: From Sea to Shore,” which will take students to the Channel Islands off the coast of California to study elephant seals, sea lions and kelp forests beneath the waves.

Piquing students' interest in science can have a lasting and life-impacting result, Richards said. Two leaders from the most recent Alaska expedition, for example, were former project “Argonauts” that participated in the Jason IV expedition exploring geothermal vents. Both are currently enrolled in graduate school science programs.

“We have a great curriculum,” Richards said. “So if we can get kids and teachers to use it more, we can really make a difference.”