Nearly 600 middle- and high-school classrooms around the globe — representing over 45,000 students — are participating in "Extreme 2003: To the Depths of Discovery." This innovative program is engaging students in marine science through a printed resource guide and curricula, a documentary video by PBS station WHYY-TV, and this interactive Web site, where news is relayed from sea to shore during the 23-day expedition.

Among this year's highlights, students can "Write the Scientists," design an "Extreme Experiment," and submit their work to the "Virtual Science Fair." Forty-eight 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 coordinator working with Dr. Craig Cary, Chief Scientist, is Letise Houser, a Ph.D. student at the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies. Each day, she will relay news to the University of Delaware Marine Public Education Office, which is coordinating the Extreme 2003 program.

Extreme 2003 is presented by the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies, with primary support from the National Science Foundation. Additional support is provided by NOAA Sea Grant and WHYY-TV.