The Zephyr Education Foundation
The Zephyr Education Foundation is a non-profit organization created to support marine science awareness and education through hands-on field activities. Areas of interest include marine biological, environmental and oceanographic field data collection studies. 
 
We host field trips to Woods Hole in which we take classes out on Vineyard Sound and conduct marine biological and oceanographic activities. We start out by towing a video camera sled over the bottom and view a live feed up on deck. This gives the students a unique opportunity to see different species living in a variety of habitats.
Students also participate in the deployment and retrieval of a naturalist benthic dredge and plankton net to discover the rich variety of marine animals living in the waters off Woods Hole. A Naturalist assists in the identification of the organisms collected and provides an overview of the local natural history. Students also participate in making oceanographic measurements and observe tidal currents around Woods Hole. An additional side-trip to the Sippewissett Salt Marsh can be arranged to discover the diversity and importance of the estuarine environment.

Each class deploys a towed benthic sled to view and collect real-time underwater video of the benthic communities in Vineyard Sound. Click on the video clips at the bottom of this page. One (below) was filmed and produced by student-run ENVSCI Productions at Cape Cod Tech. Thanks to Jillian Hallett, Andrew McAdams-Rigsby and their classmates in Lynn Fleischer's class for producing this video for us.

Over 1300 students participated in our program in 2011. See our page "Participating Schools" for reference.

Click below to view clips from our on-board hand-held microscope.
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Drifter Project:
This spring classes deployed drifting 
buoys provided by Jim Manning of 
NOAA. They were deployed in Vine-
yard Sound between Martha's 
Vineyard and Nobska Point. We 
have been following their tracks, 
all different throughout southern New England waters.  
Get news from the drifter project at
http://coseenow.net/mate/2011/10/
14/drifter-newsletter-8/

Track our drifters tracks at:
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/
drift_mme_2011_1.html 
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/
drift_gnbt_2011_1.html 
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/
drift_pjp2_2011_1.html 
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/
drift_sdhs_2011_1.html 
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/
drift_sshs_2011_1.html

Or, click below to view the tracks of 
the drifters from 2011.
Media
Media
Class opening dredge on the back deck
Click above for a back deck video clip.
Through collaboration with research institutions in Woods Hole, 
including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, we engage 
the class in the techniques, results and relevance of current 
research projects.

The Zephyr Education Foundation believes that while some students may 

become professional scientists, all will become voters whether they are 

teachers, school administrators, governmental officials or pursue other areas 

of interest. All can benefit from a hands-on program that illustrates the 

diversity, excitement and importance of the marine environment.


Zephyr Education Foundation, Inc. is recognized as a non-profit organization 

under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.