On March 8, CCTV launched the third episode of its serial program “Discover a Wonderful Life”. Reporters stepped on board R/V TKK, and livestreamed a class given by teachers and students from the College of Ocean and Earth Sciences (XMU). Class participants were students from an elementary school in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Despite the remote distance of over two thousand kilometers, a unique glimpse of ocean sciences was provided to the students in the class.

Ten sixth graders from an elementary school in Xiamen also participated the class aboard while the students in Ningxia were having the class online. They all engaged in the live Q&A with the teachers from the College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Professors Peng Xu and Weiwei You. “R/V TKK, named in memory of the great founding father of XMU, was one of the world-class scientific research vessels,” Xu said. “Today we are going to make a tour of the vessel to have a detailed picture of the shipborne equipment and working areas, and you can expect to watch seawater collection up close later.”

In the class, Weiwei You introduced the students to the features and layout of the ship with a model, and did a simple hands-on experiment in the main lab to help familiarize them with the causes and consequences of ocean acidification.

“Uncovering the Mysterious Sea Animals” was the most compelling part of the class. Using the marine specimens housed in Museum of Marine Science and Technology (XMU) as teaching kits, You offered a visualized marine life world to the class. “The ocean covers more than two thirds of Earth’s surface, but much of it remains unknown and unexplored,” said You in the class. “With the versatile Remotely Operated Vehicles, or ROV, scientists can explore the deep oceans that are beyond the reach of conventional technology.” The students were completely immersed in the class as if they were diving with the ROV and saw the “black smokers” and “white smokers” on the seafloor in person.

You giving a class in the main conference room. Photo: Jiajun Huang

The class obviously aroused the students’ interest to reach more ocean facts. During the live Q&A, various questions were asked by the students: “What is the biggest whale on the planet?”, “What is the longest-lived marine life?”, “What lives in the ocean but is not a fish?” and so forth. Each question was well answered by You.

Ying Li, a teacher from the elementary school in Ningxia said that the online class was an innovative co-curricular activity which could provide students in remote areas with first-hand ocean science knowledge and help to develop their interest in ocean exploration. Li also hoped that the activity likewise could be regularly delivered to help the children access more knowledge about the diverse world beyond the mountains, narrowing the gap of education inequity caused by long distance.

On March 12, the news “Live Class Launched on board R/V TKK” was broadcast by CCTV News.