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ORTA Volunteers at NOAA Kids Day

By: Andrew Peck, ORTA

The NOAA Science Center during the Kids Day Event. (Credit: NOAA)

In celebration of National Take Your Child to Work Day, NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) and Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research (OAR) hosted a Kids Day on Thursday, April 25th in the NOAA Science Center at NOAA Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. This event was attended by NOS and OAR employees, affiliates, and their children.

Andrew Peck (OAR/ORTA) speaks with another NOAA employee, while that employee’s child takes part in the shipwreck VR experience. (Credit: NOAA)

Employees across the NOS and OAR worked together to organize this event for the first time since 2019. The Office of Research, Transition and Application (ORTA) volunteered for this event, hosting a virtual reality (VR) experience, which offered attendees the chance to discover colorful corals, explore a shipwreck, swim with playful sea lions, or explore Hawaiian waters with green sea turtles. These VR experiences were created by the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. More information about these can be found at the Sanctuaries 360°: Explore the Blue website.

Also available on ORTA’s VR headset was the opportunity to investigate the urban heat island effect in Washington, DC. This virtual reality experience created by the NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab guides viewers through a tour of the nation’s capital, displaying the urban heat island phenomenon throughout the city. Urban heat islands are areas that experience higher temperatures compared to nearby areas. These temperature differences are often due to highly concentrated urbanized features, such as buildings and roads, limiting the amount of greenery.

Menu of NOAA virtual reality experiences available for viewing by kids. (Credit: NOAA)

Other activities included creating a hurricane in a bottle, talking one-on-one with NOAA scientists, and the premier of the NOAA-created Teek and Tom animated series. A full list of activities and more details on the day can be found here.

Ishrat Jabin (OAR/OSS) speaks with NOAA employees and their children during Kids Day at the “Scientist Is In” table. (Credit: NOAA)

Throughout this three hour event more than 50 children of NOAA employees were able to use ORTA’s VR headset. This event was a great success and ORTA’s participation highlights its engagement in ongoing outreach activities to share NOAA’s mission of science, service, and stewardship.

ORTA’s 2024 planned STEM / Outreach Events include:

  1. Florida A&M University Developmental Research School NOAA Day – April 12, 2024
  2. Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University STEM Day – April 13, 2024
  3. NOS / OAR Kids Day – April 25, 2024 
  4. Puerto Rico Outreach Event – May 8, 2024
  5. NOAA Office of Education’s Career Fair – May 29, 2024 
  6. NOAA STEM Day, Brightwood Elementary – June 3, 2024
  7. 2024 Department of Commerce Youth Summit – June 18, 2024 
  8. Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) Outreach Event – October 22-23, 2024
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