The NOAA Planet Stewards book club has a great line-up of books slated for discussion for this academic year. Scroll down to see the titles, brief descriptions, dates and connection links for each Book Club meeting. Discussion Questions will be posted approximately one week before each meeting.
To see previously selected books and associated discussion questions, have a look at our Book Club Archive Page.
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Here’s the general information for participating in our Book Club. We hope you’ll join us as we explore new and thought-provoking topics.
December 12, 2023
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
Invited to the world’s only undersea research station, Ezzy, Luke, and their father head to the Florida Keys and dive into an unexpected adventure. While visiting their ex-military friends in the Aquarius Sea Station, Ezzy and Luke encounter a strange algae bloom at the surface, giant goliath groupers, and a mysterious fish that threatens the coral reefs and their own safety. It’s another wild ride filled with humor and action as Ezzy Skylar explores the depths of her courage while overcoming her insecurities. With new friends, she and Luke discover the wonders of the undersea world and what it is like to live underwater. But once again they unwittingly stumble into a plot that could have disastrous consequences for the local wildlife and must jump into action to save the day.
Escape Undersea is full of science and interesting facts. What new information did you learn from the book? What information do you think your students would find most interesting? What topics would you and/or your students like to explore further?
What questions do you have, or you think your students will have regarding living and/or working in the Aquarius undersea habitat?
Genetic engineering plays a key role in the book. The genetically altered giant lionfish in the book is clearly fiction, but there are examples of how genetic engineering is actually being used to benefit the environment. In 2021 the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District and Oxitec released genetically engineered mosquitoes to control invasive Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Keys. The project was successful and has been repeated every spring. What examples of genetic engineering are you familiar with?
Another key concept in the book is the problem of waste water run-off, how it affects the ocean, and causes algal blooms. Do you know where your wastewater goes?
Coral reefs play a big part in the book. Today, coral reef ecosystems are under multiple threats, including climate change, pollution, overfishing, invasive species, and development. How do each of these stressors impact coral reef ecosystems? In addition to Lionfish, can you think of other invasive species that are disrupting ecosystems (aquatic or terrestrial?)
In the first part of the "Note from the Author" at the end of the book, there are 33 statements which ask the reader to identify if the statements are real or made-up. In the second part of this section Dr. Prager answers the questions and explains why each statement is real or made-up. How could you effectively use this section of the book with students?
Escape Undersea is fiction based on science. After reading the book has your perspective of climate change or the ocean changed? Would you and/or your students want to live and work in an underwater research laboratory?
Aquarius was owned by NOAA and operated by the University of North Carolina Wilmington until 2013. In 2013 Florida International University (FIU) took over the operational control of the Aquarius. In 2014 FIU assumed ownership and created the Medina Aquarius Program. You can learn more about the Medina Aquarius Program and see amazing video of the Aquarius here.
January 9, 2024
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
When avalanching glaciers thrust a massive Antarctic ice sheet into the open ocean, the captain of an atomic submarine must risk his vessel to rescue the survivors of a smashed polar research station; in Washington the President’s top advisor scrambles to spin the disaster to suit his master’s political aims; and meanwhile two intrepid newsmen sail south into the storm-lashed Drake Passage to discover the truth.
Onboard the submarine, as the colossal ice sheet begins its drift toward South America and the world begins to take notice, scientists uncover a secret that will threaten the future of America’s military power and change the fate of humanity.
And beneath the human chaos, one brave Blue Whale fights for the survival of his species.
Discussion Questions: (coming)
February 13, 2024
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
While concern about the state of our land, air, and water continues to grow, there is widespread belief that environmental issues are primarily of interest to wealthy white communities. Engage, Connect, Protect explodes this myth, revealing the deep and abiding interest that African American, Latino, and Native American communities ― many of whom live in degraded and polluted parts of the country – have in our collective environment.
Part eye-opening critique of the cultural divide in environmentalism, part biography of a leading social entrepreneur, and part practical toolkit for engaging diverse youth, Engage, Connect, Protect covers:
Engage, Connect, Protect is a wake-up call for businesses, activists, educators, and policymakers to recognize the work of grassroots activists in diverse communities and create opportunities for engaging with diverse youth as the next generation of environmental stewards.
Discussion Questions: (coming)
March 12, 2024
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. In the 1970s, Pollack had excelled as one of Yale’s first two women to earn a Bachelor of Science in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, and starved for encouragement, she abandoned her lifelong dream of becoming a theoretical physicist. Years later, she thought back on her experiences and wondered what had changed in the intervening decades, and what challenges remained. Based on six years of interviewing dozens of teachers and students and reviewing studies on gender bias, The Only Woman in the Room is an illuminating exploration of the cultural, social, psychological, and institutional barriers confronting women in the STEM disciplines. Pollack brings to light the struggles that women in the sciences are often hesitant to admit and provides hope that changing attitudes and behaviors can bring more women into fields in which they remain, to this day, seriously under-represented.
Discussion Questions: (coming)
April 9, 2024
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumed asks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system.
We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of it in as little as six months after we receive it. The byproducts of our quest to consume are creating an environmental crisis. Aja Barber wants to change this--and you can, too.
In Consumed, Barber calls for change within an industry that regularly overreaches with abandon, creating real imbalances in the environment and the lives of those who do the work—often in unsafe conditions for very low pay—and the billionaires who receive the most profit. A story told in two parts, Barber exposes the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry, one which brokered slavery, racism, and today’s wealth inequality. Once the layers are peeled back, Barber invites you to participate in unlearning, to understand the truth behind why we consume in the way that we do, to confront the uncomfortable feeling that we are never quite enough and why we fill that void with consumption rather than compassion. Barber challenges us to challenge the system and our role in it. The less you buy into the consumer culture, the more power you have. Consumed will teach you how to be a citizen and not a consumer.
Discussion Questions: (coming)
May 14, 2024
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Time
Video Conference Log In: meet.google.com/wnf-wuxm-dom
Phone Dial In #: (US) +1 401-285-4760
Pin: 743 337 488#
A lifelong acolyte of the natural world, Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the subject of wetlands and the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment—by storing the carbon emissions that accelerate climate change. Fens, bogs, swamps, and marine estuaries are crucial to the earth’s survival, and in four illuminating parts, Proulx documents their systemic destruction in pursuit of profit.
In a vivid and revelatory journey through history, Proulx describes the fens of 16th-century England, Canada’s Hudson Bay lowlands, Russia’s Great Vasyugan Mire, and America’s Okeefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. She introduces the early explorers who launched the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and writes of the diseases spawned in the wetlands—the Ague, malaria, Marsh Fever.
A sobering look at the degradation of wetlands over centuries and the serious ecological consequences, this is “an unforgettable and unflinching tour of past and present, fixed on a subject that could not be more important” (Bill McKibben).
Discussion Questions: (coming)
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