More than 500 middle- and high-school classrooms in the United States and in several other countries — representing over 41,000 students — are participating in "Extreme 2002: Mission to the Abyss." This innovative educational program is engaging students in deep-sea research and discovery through a printed resource guide/curriculum activities, a video by PBS station WHYY-TV (Wilmington/Philadelphia), and this interactive Web site, where news is relayed from sea to shore during the 24-day expedition.

Among this year's special highlights, students can "Write the Scientists" and help design an "Extreme Experiment." Nearly 50 classrooms also will participate in "The Phone Call to the Deep," a live conference call with the scientists as they work in the submersible Alvin at hydrothermal vent sites.

The shipboard education coordinators working with Dr. Craig Cary, Chief Scientist, include Hepsi Zsoldos, an Earth science teacher at Talley Middle School in Wilmington, Delaware, and Jen Costanza, a graduate student at the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies. They will relay news to the University of Delaware Marine Public Education Office, which is coordinating the Extreme 2002 program.

Extreme 2002 is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies, with support from NOAA Sea Grant, WHYY-TV, and the MBNA Foundation.