It was recently Navy Week at Hidden Valley Middle School, where students had a chance to dive deeply into ocean STEM careers.
On this episode of the Supercast, discover why the U.S. Navy recently visited a number of Utah schools and why the Navy sees students as the future of solving some of the ocean's most challenging problems.
Audio Transcription
[Music]Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was recently Navy Week at Hidden Valley Middle School, where students had a chance to dive deeply into Ocean STEM careers.
On this episode of the Supercast, discover why the US Navy visited a number of Utah schools, and why the Navy sees students as the future of solving some of the ocean's most challenging problems.
We talk with US Navy officers and civilians who explain why they want to help Utah middle school students find a passion for the oceans and possibly discover a career they might not have considered while living in the desert.
[ Music ]We're here at Hidden Valley Middle School talking with several representatives from the U.S. Navy who have been visiting our classrooms to talk with some of our students in science classes. And I'm really excited to have a chance to talk with you. Please introduce yourselves, where you're from, and just a little bit about yourself.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Awesome. Well, glad to be here. My name's Lieutenant Amanda Weber. I am originally from Maryland, but call Stevensville, Montana home now. I have been in the Navy for about six years. I started off my career in the Navy as a meteorology and oceanography officer. I've currently done three tours in the Navy with that community, and currently right now work in Monterey, California. I’ve got a degree in biochemistry and then my master's in cybersecurity.
Lt. (j.g.) Corinne Fleury
All right, morning, thanks for having us. My name is Lieutenant (j.g.) Corinne Fleury So I've been in the Navy for about two years now. I'm also in METOC or meteorology and oceanography. I come from a small town, about an hour north of New York City called Mahopac, New York. In college, I studied space science and engineering.
Lt. Serena Gardner
Good morning, Lieutenant Serena Gardner. I'm from Santa Maria, California. I've been in the Navy for about seven years. I spent my first tour as a surface warfare officer, or SWO, driving warships out in Japan. And then for the last three years, I've been also doing meteorology and oceanography. I'm currently stationed at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, where our headquarters is. And I have degrees in both chemical engineering and a master's in business.
Terri Yocum:
Hi, my name is Terri Yocum. I am from Covington, Louisiana, South Louisiana. I have two degrees in coastal science and coastal engineering. I started working for the Navy about three years ago, and I'm still living in the same area.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it's great to have all of you and very nice to meet each of you. Tell me about what drew you to the Navy. What got you interested in being part of this?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So I originally wanted to join the Army as a pharmacist, ironically enough. Clearly did not go that route. But I had both of my grandpas were in World War II. One of them was a meteorologis and the other one was in the Navy as a radar man. So I kind of merged the two and here I am as a meteorologist in the Navy.
Lt. Corinne Fleury:
Yeah, so for me, you know, I was spending my time in engineering school kind of learning not only all the technical matter that I needed to for my degree, but learning a little bit about the pathway of what being an engineer looks like. And to be completely honest, I just couldn't see myself doing that job for my entire life. I felt kind of called to something a little bit hopefully more out there, more adventurous, out in the field. I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to serve my country, so I definitely felt interested in the military. That's kind of what drew me toward it.
Lt. Serena Gardner:
So mine is definitely a combination of factors. My grandfather was career army, so I grew up hearing all of his stories about his experiences in Europe and then my brother is career Marines. He's older than me and definitely was a big influence on my selection of military life. However, the Navy was a much better fit for me than the Marines or the Army specifically because of its focus on STEM. The STEM opportunities, especially for a female in the Navy, are a lot more diverse than any other branch. So that was definitely my influence there.
Terri Yocum:
So as a civilian, I want to say prior to three years ago, I didn't even know that was an option. The Navy came into the University of New Orleans and was looking to hire scientists and I happened to be on that list and I actually really love my job now. I get to help the Navy with search and rescue and make models for currents and tides and I like it a lot.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about helping the Navy with search and rescue. What does that involve? What are some of the things you do related to that?
Terri Yocum:
So I build these models that predict the tides and currents and if somebody is overboard or something is overboard, then since I can predict the currents, I run the models and try to figure out where that person might be.
Anthony Godfrey:
So that when they start to search, they know where to search based on the predictions you've done of where the tides and currents are headed.
Terri Yocum:
Yes, sir.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me what is involved in being an oceanographer or meteorologist for the Navy? What are some of the things you're doing day to day when you're not in eighth-grade classrooms?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So I will say that the great thing about being in the Navy is that you, especially in the uniform, is that you move incredibly frequently. So with that move comes normally a change in job, and that can be a minor shift or a major shift. I've been lucky enough to do three jobs that I feel like don't really have much in common except for the fact that I've had the same essential title. So my first job, I did a lot of atmospheric and oceanographic forecasting across the globe, I did that for aviation platforms, so helicopters, jets, P-8s, so like the big large airplanes that pretty much mimic Boeing planes.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit more about that. You're predicting the weather before they're taking flight in a particular direction or how does that work exactly?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Yes sir, so pilots in the Navy traditionally are required to have this piece of paper that records where they're going to fly and then the actual conditions that they're going to see when they're in flight as well as other locations that they can land if they were to encounter an issue during flight. So we as meteorologists create that report and allow for them to take off safely and then have additional options if they do need to land in an emergency.
Anthony Godfrey:
I really need you on snow days this winter. You know can I just call and have you look at things and tell me at 3 30 in the morning whether I should call a snow day or not? If I could ask these students at the back of the room they're always going to say ‘yes it ought to be a snow day’ but I think I need Navy level support for my snow day decisions.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So if you think that your local meteorologists are off key with--
Anthony Godfrey:
Now wait a minute I said nothing against our local meteorologists. I'm just standing here- you've got the uniform, you guys have all these degrees- I'm just thinking I could get a little backup.
Lt. Amanda Weber
I say a lot of things very confidently when it comes to weather forecasts. However, it is the one job in the universe where you can consistently be wrong and still have a job.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're off the hook. You don't have to help with the snow days. I will shoulder that responsibility alone.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
You can put me on like speed dial number nine if you really need backup, but I would definitely not be the first call.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, all right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Describe some of the other jobs. You started with the first one that you do.
Lt .Amanda Weber:
Yes, I apologize. We got a little bit off-kilter there.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's my fault.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
No, that's fine. I've done a lot. So yeah, started off doing all of that forecasting. So we did aviation, surface and subsurface. So all assets that the Navy owns we forecasted for. I was at that job for about two years, left there and I actually went to a mine warfare command in the Middle East. We actually lived in Bahrain for two years.
I worked for the component of the Navy that did mine warfare and expeditionary mine countermeasures. So pretty much we had to forecast for the surface of the ocean and underneath, learn a lot about the currents and bottom types, so certain different types of sediments, how they carry sound or how they bury things, and then hunt for mines all throughout that. So that was really fun. I got to watch a lot of things get blown up pretty much for two years.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
A lot of fun. And then it came back from that and now I work on my current job, where we do all of our atmospheric and oceanographic modeling. So we have all these supercomputers that run millions of calculations every hour to make sure that we know what is going on for about 70 different types of measurements in a multitude of different layers all across the globe.
Anthony Godfrey:
A multitude of different layers. You talked about subsurface, so what's going on underneath the surface of the ocean, on the surface, and atmosphere. And I never would have thought of it that way. I only think about the surface of the ocean. Fortunately, there are people like you that think below the surface. So that's quite a range of jobs.
How about for you? Have you done a, tell me about your day to day.
Lt. (j.g.) Corinne Fleury:
Yeah, so my day-to-day. Lieutenant Weber and I work at the same command, FNMOC. So essentially what we're doing is we're kind of the liaisons between any asset that's out in the fleet, mostly its ships. And we're kind of the connecting point between them and our civilian SMEs who are running those models and operating supercomputers to get them that output of what they need. So in a sense, we kind of speak the military language. So anything that they need to support their mission planning or exercises, we just help them get their products so that they can be safe out there and get the job done.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. And how about for you? What are some of the jobs you're involved in?
Lt. Serena Gardner:
So my day-to-day is actually quite different than these other ladies. I work at the headquarters staff. So on a daily, I am prepping reports and summaries for the Admiral of the entire METOC community. So that's everything from knowing where all of our assets are on every ship in every country where any METOC personnel are located because that's what he cares about.
We're also tracking where all of our oceanographic vessels and what the surveys that they're doing, if they're having any problems, that's also something we track. If we have any issues with gliders, as Ms. Terri was saying before, and we need to go pick it up or request help from another organization, that's also something we do. So that's kind of on a daily where we're constantly measuring that drum beat of where we are with our assets and what else needs to happen to support the larger Navy missions.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back we explore some exciting technology the Navy officers are sharing with Hidden Valley Middle School students.
Break:
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Anthony Godfrey:
Is the kraken real?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
No comment.
Anthony Godfrey:
You can't tell me? Okay, all right, once we turn the microphone off we're gonna talk kraken, but right now let's talk about these devices right here that you have.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Yes sir, so we have brought with us a very small deployable buoy as well as an eXpendable BathyThermograph. So again, why–
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, wait, back up. An expendable backy thermograph?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Bathy.
Anthony Godfrey:
Bathy, oh, I almost got there, okay.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So the really great thing about all of these acronyms is that's why we use them, makes things a lot easier. So we actually call this an XBT, so we do not have to say that every time.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's a great idea.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Yes, so we'll start with the buoy. So the buoy you'll see is relatively large compared to the XBT that we've got next to it, because this is something that we'll deploy on the surface of the ocean. It's got some of those solar panels around the side because that's actually how it's gonna continuously power itself, because it does have an iridium capability to send the data that it's collecting back to us, so that it can stay in the ocean, continue to collect, and then we can still get the data real time.
So you'll see that it's yellow, just mostly, so that when either ships or smaller fishing vessels or whatever are operating in the area that it's deployed in, know that it's there, can see it, and should theoretically leave it alone. We'll also notice on the top of it, this was a question that we got in a lot of the classrooms we've been in this week is that there's a QR code. In some portions of the world, you'll see this, and you might get kind of a nefarious thought that it's not a very nice thing. But if you scan this QR code, it actually shows up that it is a buoy, it is collecting oceanographic data, it is not harmful, and to please leave it alone and leave it where it is.
Anthony Godfrey:
I'm going to scan the QR code right now.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
It's perfect, it brings you directly-- - Let's pretend I was just snorkeling around in the middle of the ocean.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
It tells you that it is a data-collecting entity.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, it's a spotter.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
It is.
Anthony Godfrey:
OK. It works. Great.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
It does work.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right. That makes sense
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So it does -it measures a lot of our surface levels. It measures either really close to the surface for wind components, or it can also measure sea components as well. But it's going to measure everything there on the surface where it's actually floating.
And then that's where this XBT kind of comes into play, is it collects the data that a buoy cannot. So this is actually deployed off of aircrafts and ships all around the globe, breaking down kind of what the XBT actually stands for. So that first term, expendable. So this is something that we use once and also if it gets damaged in the deployment, it's not something that we need to retrieve.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
The bathy part allows for us to measure the actual depth of the water column that we're dropping it in. And then the thermograph means that the specific measurement that we're taking with depth is temperature. So this allows for us to calculate sound speed in the water column because the three things that the Navy is majorly concerned about when we're talking about oceanographic or undersea operations is sound speed. I want to know how far and how fast and how well my sound is going to travel.
And the three major components that make up that calculation is pressure, which comes directly from depth, salinity, which unfortunately this does not measure, but we do have other ones or other capabilities to measure that, and then also with temperature. So that's the main proponent of this measurement.
So we can deploy this and kind of get an understanding of what's going on directly under the asset so we can plan appropriately for our sonar ranges for the day as well as what frequency we should use.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, that's very interesting and I assume that there are many more that you use, many different types of devices and these are just a couple of examples.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Yeah, absolutely. So you know, Ms. Gardner kind of mentioned the oceanographic ships that we have and they are absolutely stacked out far and wide with the different capabilities, collection, assets, as well as sensors on board. So this is just a couple of things that we use that are kind of on the cheaper side and as well as are a bit expendable because this buoy that we have here, the likelihood of us getting it back is pretty low because either it will go out to sea and we won't be able to find it because it is so small. Sometimes it'll get damaged and unfortunately stink or another asset will come and pick it up because they won't know what it is.
Anthony Godfrey:
Or a kraken will eat it.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Or a kraken.
Anthony Godfrey:
Ah, she just acknowledged that a kraken exists. I knew it. I knew it. Tell me about visiting middle school classrooms in Jordan School District as part of your adventure.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So honestly, it's been a really great experience. We walked into a couple of different classes where the students looked at us and had no idea what we were wearing because we showed up in our summer whites uniform. And it's not a very traditional thing you see in Salt Lake City, Utah. So that's been the really great part about this outreach that the Navy's been able to do this week, is actually exposing some of the youth in Salt Lake City to what the Navy brings to the table, as well as all of the great STEM opportunities that we have.
And I think it worked out really well because we actually ended up having four women that are in STEM. So that's kind of shown the youth as well that there are a lot of STEM opportunities and there's a lot of opportunities for women in the military as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's a fantastic message. And I'm really grateful that you've spent the time with our students and I was very excited to have this opportunity. What would you say to a student who's considering the Navy as a career?
Lt. Amanda Weber:
So it's been a great opportunity for me to be able to continue my education, to be able to see the world and to be able to meet people that I would have never had the opportunity to meet else wise. So being able to work with people that are from places like California, which I had never been before this tour, or like New York, we're a great representation of kind of how you can pull people from all across the states, get us into a single location and give us a similar goal and a similar mindset and just watch us excel and grow. So that's been a great opportunity for me to be able to see and also it just pushes you to be better.
There's nothing quite like watching the people that you work for, work alongside, and the people that work for you succeed and grow and change and actually be able to accomplish things that they never thought they could. So that's been just the absolute stellar part wearing the uniform every day and I could not be luckier.
Anthony Godfrey:
Outstanding and how about the civilian connection with the Navy?
Terri Yocum:
So like I said before as a civilian I didn't even know that was an option so I'm here to let everybody know that you can go to school and you can still work for the Navy and they still give you lots of opportunities so if traveling is not your thing maybe being working for the Navy as a civilian would be a better option.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right well thank you very much for your time and thanks for everything you've done to to help support our students and open up their minds to some other possibilities and helping them learn a little bit more about the STEM that they're studying.
Lt. Amanda Weber:
Yeah, absolutely. We're really lucky to be here.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here with Mr. Peterson talking with him about the experience that he and his students have had in the classroom having the Navy visit. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the experience.
Mr. Peterson:
My name is Mr. Peterson and we've had some people from the Navy come today and we got to learn quite a bit about how the Navy operates and what they do for us.
Isidro:
My name is Isidro, and I think that the best part of the Navy being here was learning about how fun it is to be in the Navy and learning about what type of schooling they had to go to. And that was pretty cool, I thought.
Zach:
Hi, my name is Zach, and I think one of the coolest parts about the Navy was learning the different STEM career options that you're able to do while still being in the Navy and serving your country.
Sage:
My name is Sage, and it was really, really cool to learn about the stuff they do because my dad was in the Navy before I was born. And he told me a bunch of stories when he did his stuff, and it's a lot different to hear it from other people.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some things about the ocean and weather that you learned that you didn't know before?
Zach:
I learned that the weather and the ocean, it's honestly, it's almost completely unpredictable, but some of the technologies that we have these days make it a lot easier to predict or try to predict. But really it's all just a force of nature and we have to try our best to accept that.
Sage:
Same thing that Zach said.
Isidro:
I thought it was cool to learn about how many people work on trying to predict so many things about the weather and about how unpredictable it is. That’s crazy.
Anthony Godfrey:
Did it expand your mind having the Navy here to think about what some of the job opportunities might be for you in the future?
Sage:
Yeah, definitely. It's so cool about all the different things that they do, and it's not just like sitting on a boat and just doing stuff in the ocean.
Zach:
Oh, yeah, completely. Like, if I joined the Navy, I could potentially do two things that I love, serving my country and working with machines.
Isidro:
I agree with that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks very much for taking the time and have a great school year.
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you will do today. We'll see you out there.