Spotlight on Mitchell Greenberg: Delaware teacher made history with Navy program

Mitchell Greenberg, a teacher for Reach Academy for girls, attended the Maury Project, offered by the U.S. Naval Academy on July 12-23. Greenberg took the time to chat about his experience at the Naval Academy's workshop, which was designed to inform science teachers about oceanographic and meteorological study, and his outlook on Reach Academy.

Q) Over the summer you participated in the Maury Project, a workshop held by the U.S. Naval Academy. Explain how you got involved with this program?

A) I went to the National Science Teachers Association convention in Philadelphia and talked to people from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and they suggested that I talk to the American Meteorological Society. And they said, by the way, why don't you apply for the Maury project? I said sure, why not, it's two weeks straight in the summer. And I had no idea. I just did it because I thought it was going to be fun.

Q) You were one of 24 teachers from around the world that were selected to attend this program. Why do you think you were chosen?

A) They wanted somebody from Delaware. [In] seventeen years they had two others apply, but apparently one of them didn't make it and I don't know what happened to the other. So they really wanted a foothold from Delaware and I was the only person that applied.

Q) Describe some interesting and unique facts you discovered with The Maury Project?

A) They really only know about five percent of the ocean, specifically. They really don't know too much, other than that. One of the things I learned, that I thought was interesting, is that the Navy's sonar doesn't do the type of damage to the marine environment that people thought it did. I also learned about the effects of El Niño and what it does and how it works.

Q) How have you benefited from this experience?

A) The moon and the tides. I always thought the moon showed up and tides happened. But the moon operates within a very specific margin, within the latitudes of the earth. Normally about 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south is where the moon operates for its tides.

Q) As a male figure at Reach Academy for Girls, and as a new teacher with the school, how will you relate to your students?

A) I'm going to be doing their Talented and Gifted program (TAG). One of the things that I've been a big proponent of is single gender education. So it's a question of saying to the girls, we're going to take your education and we're going to move it up a notch. We're going to make it more interesting and more challenging. We're going to offer you things that you didn't know about the ocean, when we're going to give you opportunities to go out on ships and opportunities to go to the Naval Academy to spend one week during the summer.

Q) What do you hope to bring to Reach Academy, and what goals have you set for yourself?

A) I want to bring notoriety to them. I want people to look and say that single gender education does work. I want everybody in the community to know there's a Talented and Gifted program out there for anybody who applies, so they can send their child and know they're getting a quality education.