Chatsworth : Seamobile Brings the Ocean to a Schoolyard

Plunging into the San Pedro Channel Monday afternoon, they set out to explore the mysteries of the ocean’s depths--18 sixth-grade scientists from Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth. Deeper and deeper they went until at last they came to rest on the channel bottom, 1,620 feet below the surface.

Or so it seemed.

In fact, the students were aboard the Seamobile, an innovative mobile classroom from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County that simulates a deep-sea dive. Inside the 48-foot trailer, students sat in a submarine replica complete with video “portholes” and computer monitors.

Instructor Michael Fritzen, who led the children through the two-hour undersea lesson with partner Maria Mack, said the Seamobile offers an educational experience that few classrooms can duplicate.

“It becomes more personal because they themselves are the scientists solving the problems,” he said. “Science is such a scary subject to so many kids, but this shows them that science can be fun.”

Funded by a grant from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, the brand-new craft was making its second stop at a Los Angeles Unified School District campus Monday, and the students seemed to love it.

“It feels like I’m really in a submarine,” said 11-year-old Samantha Horn, who was busy exploring the continental slope off the northern tip of Catalina Island with classmates Astrid Carrillo and Mick Aniceto.

A few “miles” south, in a Catalina kelp forest, Brad Lenett, Colin Klinger and Tae Kim compared data collected by a “remote operated vehicle” with information gathered 10 years before to determine that fishermen were depleting the marine population by “overharvesting.”

“Basically, they’re killing off the fish,” the 12-year-old Lenett said.