COSTA MESA : Broadcasts Open World of Science

Estancia High School freshman Melissa Inouye temporarily traded the sunny, dry fields of Costa Mesa for a catwalk high in the humid treetops of a rain forest in Belize.

She is part of an international project designed to excite students about science and technology.

The 14-year-old honor student is to arrive in Belize today to help scientists collect insects in the rain forest and measure minerals in cave water as part of the fifth annual Jason Project.

The project, the brainchild of Robert D. Ballard of the Woods Hole Institute in Massachusetts, conducts live broadcasts of educational scientific expeditions via satellite to nearly a half million students in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Bermuda.

“Science is my favorite subject,” Inouye said as she thumbed through a thick, black binder stuffed with information about the lizards, snakes, frogs, iguanas and other critters she will encounter in her 10-day stay in the jungles of Belize, which border Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

“I think I’m going to see some maggots (too),” she said, crinkling her nose.

Inouye is one of 25 students chosen to participate in the project, and is the only one in this year’s group from the West Coast.

Her main task will be to set bug traps and to study caterpillar larvae that burrow through leaves to create their homes.

Other students will help excavate an ancient Mayan township and study a coral reef off the coast of Belize where scientists believe increased exposure to ultraviolet rays are “bleaching,” or killing sections of the reef.

Students have the chance to talk with the scientists via computer linkups, and the answers are broadcast to viewers.

In Laguna Niguel on Thursday, 11-year-old Darren Chadra of Niguel Hills Middle School stepped up to a computer at the Edwards Ocean Ranch Cinema and asked an archeologist what items were most commonly found in the dig at the Mayan ruins.

The 300 children at the theater and others around the world watched and listened as the archeologist in Belize described the pots, jars and other household items his team had discovered at the site.

“It’s a great way to see science,” Chadra said of the interactive video broadcasts.

His classmate, Tim Sampson, agreed.

“I thought it was kind of cool because you got to see all this stuff that you don’t really get to see around Southern California, like frogs and stuff.”

The broadcasts will continue through March 12 and are open to the public, said John Tobiczyk of the Orange County Marine Institute, which is sponsoring the project.

“It looks like something from the future,” Tobiczyk said of the approximately 40 video monitors used to transmit the broadcasts.

“It gives students the opportunity to experience the absolute latest in technology,” he said.