Hello everyone! My name is Jonathan Rice (Jon for short). I live in a beautiful town in New England -- Proctorsville, Vermont. Next year, I will teach 8th grade science in Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, Vermont. I teach a combination of chemistry, physics, and space and life science. Our school has approximately 450 students from grades 7 through 12. I have just finished 9 years of teaching 7th grade life science and 8th grade physical science and math at Woodstock, Vermont. (Hi everyone, I miss you).

I grew up on the West Coast. I can’t tell you my hometown because my family moved more than 25 times while I was growing up. (My birth certificate says that I was born in Los Angeles, though). We eventually settled down in Washington. Through my travels I developed a tremendous love for the outdoors and science. When my mother needed to find me she only had to look for the nearest stream as I spent most of my time fishing and panning for gold.

I have geology degrees from Central Washington University and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, and I received my Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After graduation I worked as an exploration geologist for Shell Oil in New Orleans for several years before deciding to change careers to become a middle school teacher. My wife, Stacia, and I decided to move to her hometown where we built our house on land that has been in her family for nearly 200 years. What a place!!! I fish in the stream that runs through our property. We keep a wildlife journal of animals passing through our back field. Our visitors have included turkeys, foxes, coyotes, deer, woodchucks, an albino dove, and even a 1200-pound moose.

Teaching has been a fun and challenging career. I enjoy coaching students as they learn science. It is especially rewarding to experience students’ energy level and excitement as they learn through inquiry. Of course, middle school students also keep me on my toes. I develop standards- and inquiry-based science and interdisciplinary units using my experiences in courses such as NASA’s NEWMAST. For the NEWMAST program I spent two weeks at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, working with NASA engineers, astronauts, and science teachers from throughout the Northeastern U.S. to develop space curriculum.

Because of my commitment to excellence in science teaching, I have worked on several district and state science curriculum and assessment committees. I received the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 2002 and I got to meet the Vice President while I was in Washington, D.C. I also earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescent Science.

Stacia and I love to travel; in recent trips we have visited Iceland, Japan, and Canada. Last summer we took our 9-year-old niece, Nicole, and our friends’ 7-year old son, Georgie, to Orlando, Florida and lived to tell about it! I also like to pan for gold in South Dakota and Alaska. When I am not panning, fishing, or collecting coins and stamps, I like to hang out with our three cats--Annie, Oliver, and Smokey.

I am very excited to have been selected the Teacher At Sea (TAS) for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 301 onboard the drilling research vessel JOIDES Resolution. IODP uses several drilling platforms to do scientific ocean drilling research across the world. The primary goal of IODP is to generate significant scientific data offering new insight into the structure and form of the oceanic crust, mantle dynamics, earthquake genesis, environmental change over time, and the nature of life in extreme environments.

As the TAS, I will be working side-by-side with scientists as they conduct seagoing research using current state-of-the-art approaches to solve scientific problems of global interest. We will be drilling on the flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and collecting geochemical and microbiological data. I will be translating the shipboard science research into teaching resources that can be used in classrooms across the country.

I would like to invite you to check out my journal as I document my experiences during the next 8 weeks on the JOIDES Resolution. I plan to include both my living experiences and my interactions with the scientists and crew.