{"id":11264,"date":"2012-03-02T18:26:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T22:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=11264"},"modified":"2012-12-12T15:06:23","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T19:06:23","slug":"honors-program-draws-crowds-for-titanic-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/03\/02\/honors-program-draws-crowds-for-titanic-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Honors program draws crowds for Titanic speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard spoke about his many deep-sea explorations. His lecture was part of both the Honors Institute and the Presidential Lecture Series.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a full house in the Student Union Apollo Room. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community filled every available seat and even lined the edge of the room as they eagerly awaited the keynote address of Wright State\u2019s annual Honors Institute.<\/p>\n

The speaker was none other than Robert Ballard, Ph.D., the deep-sea explorer famous for his 1985 discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic<\/em>\u2019s wreckage.<\/p>\n

Next month will mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic<\/em>\u2019s tragic sinking, but it was evident from the crowd that time has not diminished the public\u2019s fascination with the doomed luxury liner.<\/p>\n

Several children attended, clutching copies of Ballard\u2019s many books about his discovery. A woman came wearing a replica of the \u201cHeart of the Ocean,\u201d the necklace from James Cameron\u2019s Oscar-winning film Titanic<\/em>. A man brought with him a scale model of the historic ship. Titanic<\/em> fever was alive and well in the room.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Many young fans brought copies of Ballard's books to the event. Ballard said he hopes his research gets students excited about science.<\/p><\/div>\n

But it was Ballard\u2019s other discoveries that received the most attention at the lecture. Ballard spoke of his expeditions to find 1,500-year-old wooden ships in the Black Sea and his exploration of the Mid-Ocean Ridge, an underwater mountain range that helped confirm the theory of plate tectonics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have better maps of Mars than we do of our oceans,\u201d said Ballard. \u201cWe played golf on the moon before we saw some of the most interesting places on our own planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballard also spoke of his efforts to excite today\u2019s schoolchildren about science. Ballard\u2019s JASON Project connects students with researchers virtually in real time through the Internet, allowing them to join in live oceanography expeditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no problem getting our kids to worship athletes, singers and celebrities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re a culture of stars. We just need better stars, scientists and engineers for our kids to idolize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ballard\u2019s presentation, part of Wright State\u2019s Presidential Lecture Series, was also the keynote address for the university\u2019s annual Honors Institute.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Cornelia Dean is a science writer for the New York Times, where she writes mostly about environmental issues and science policy, and a lecturer in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.<\/p><\/div>\n

This year\u2019s Honors Institute featured a day-long symposium on \u201cExploring the Oceans.\u201d Participants heard from a variety of presenters, including economists, marine biologist, historians and English professors.<\/p>\n

Presented by the Wright State University Honors Program, the academic conference included six breakout sessions. Attendees explored the oceans from an interdisciplinary perspective and featured topics such as Military Sea Power, Life in the Oceans and the Literature of the Seas.<\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em> science writer Cornelia Dean spoke during the symposium\u2019s luncheon about the erosion of America\u2019s beaches and the dangers it poses to the American economy.<\/p>\n

The annual Honors Institute is a multi-track learning experience available to honors students. Classes are offered during Winter Quarter that complement the theme of the institute. For example, this year students could take a course on memoir literature or world wars in modern history. The symposium itself is designed to expose students to a scholarly conference setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The speaker was none other than Robert Ballard, Ph.D., the deep-sea explorer famous for his 1985 discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic\u2019s wreckage. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,729,725,2045,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-honors-program","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11264"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11271,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions\/11271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}