Next InSTEP Lecture Explores Climate Change and Marine Life in Antarctica

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Richard Aronson, professor and head of Florida Institute of Technology’s Department of Biological Sciences, will present “Climate Change and Marine Life in Antarctica” on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. The lecture will be in the auditorium of Bayside High School in Palm Bay. Part of Florida Tech’s Integrated Science Teaching Enhancement Partnership (InSTEP) program, the talk is free and open to the public.

Antarctica’s coastal waters are warming rapidly. Temperatures at the sea surface off the western Antarctic Peninsula have risen 1°C (almost 2°F) in the last 50 years, making it one of the fastest-warming regions of the World Ocean. Aronson, who has led ecological and paleontological research expeditions to Antarctica, will explain the dramatic ramifications of this change. His research in Antarctica is funded by the National Science Foundation.

InSTEP is funded by two grants totaling nearly $3.4 million to Florida Tech from the National Science Foundation. The program enables university graduate students and faculty to work with science teachers in Brevard Public Schools to develop inquiry-based lesson plans.

For more information, contact Richard Tankersley, Ph.D., InSTEP director, at (321) 674-8195 or at rtankers@fit.edu.