Debra Brice’s exceptional career has taken her around the world and to the bottom of the sea, all in an effort to bring the wonders of science education and marine biology to her students. Her commendations are extensive including, San Diego County Teacher of the year and semi-finalist for the State of California Teacher of the Year in 2004, Congressional Honoree for her 2002 participation in the NOAA Teacher at Sea Program, a $10,000 Toyota Tapestry Award to produce “In the Footsteps of Roger Revelle: Seagoing Physical Science for Middle School”, a Board Member of the San Diego Science Educator’s Board.
Debra is a certified bilingual science teacher at San Marcos Middle School near San Diego, California, a Title 1 school serving a predominantly Hispanic population from economically disadvantaged areas of north San Diego County.
Mrs. Brice has worked with the San Diego Science Alliance, a non-profit consortium of leaders from business, K-12 education, higher education, and scientific institutions committed to enhancing science literacy in K-12 education with innovative programs and resources.
Mrs. Brice has provided her students with unique science programs involving scientists at General Atomics, Delco, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Sea World, the National Weather Service, San Diego Natural History Museum, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Salk Institute.
In January and February 2005, Mrs. Brice returned as a teacher-at-sea to a research cruise from Papeete, Tahiti to 62° south near the continent of Antarctica. She communicated with her students by email and satellite broadcasts as their lessons followed buoy deployment and water-sampling research being conducted aboard the ship R/V Roger Revelle. This was the second of her 7 voyages of Oceanography on research vessels. Her broadcast from the Antarctic to her classroom was attended by local news reporters; California State Superintendent of Schools, Jack O’Connell, and Dr. Robert Knox, the Associate Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (which operates the Revelle). At the time, Jack O’Connell described Deb as one of the best teachers in the state of California.
She has continued for the last 18 years to work with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Office of Naval Research to bring Seagoing Oceanography into the classroom for over 5000 middle school students, through field trips, scientist visits and live broadcasts from research ships all over the world.
