UTMSI’s Grant Lockridge and Megan Do Honored for Contributions to Coastal Bend Students
Grant Lockridge received the Coastal Steward Educator – Higher Education Award, and Megan C. Do received the Student Rising Star – Higher Education Award at the Oct. 14 event at the Ortiz Center.
Two members of The University of Texas Marine Science Institute community were honored Wednesday night at the Coastal Bend Bays Foundation’s 24th Annual Conservation & Environmental Stewardship Awards Banquet for their contributions to education, innovation and stewardship.
Grant Lockridge | Coastal Steward Educator – Higher Education
Lockridge, a research engineer and manager of UTMSI’s Ocean Technology Workshop, was recognized for his commitment to hands-on education and for helping inspire the next generation of marine scientists and engineers.
Through a collaboration with the Port Aransas High School Innovation Lab, Lockridge gave 12 students in an advanced design class the opportunity to contribute directly to a UTMSI deep-sea research project. Students helped modify, fabricate and weld components for a benthic lander designed to collect data from the ocean floor over the course of a year.
The project introduced students to buoyancy, instrument placement, fabrication, welding and the collaborative problem-solving required to build oceanographic technology. Its impact extended beyond the participating class, with other students following the lander’s progress during the approximately two months it was housed in the Innovation Lab. One participating student later continued developing fabrication skills through summer work at UTMSI.
Lockridge was unable to attend the awards banquet because he is currently aboard a research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, where he is helping deploy the very lander the Port Aransas High School students worked on. The deployment brings the project full circle, taking the students’ contributions from their high school Innovation Lab to active oceanographic research in the Pacific.
By connecting classroom learning with real-world marine research, Lockridge demonstrated how engineering, technology and skilled trades contribute to ocean exploration and stewardship.
Megan C. Do | Student Rising Star – Higher Education
Do was recognized for her leadership in creating and launching See the Sea: CC Scholars, a mentor-mentee partnership between UTMSI and Flour Bluff High School that creates a direct pathway for local students into marine science education and careers.
The semester-long program pairs high school seniors with UTMSI academic mentors on authentic marine research projects. Students develop skills in environmental science, research methods, data analysis, scientific communication and advocacy while studying the coastal waters and ecosystems in their own community. Participants can earn credit toward both their high school diploma and a UT Austin transcript.
Do built the institutional partnership, developed the curriculum, coordinated mentors, established expectations and grading structures, and managed the logistics of operating across two institutions. In its inaugural year, CC Scholars is serving four Flour Bluff High School students with six mentors. The framework is designed to expand to as many as 18 students over the next three years.
The students’ semester culminates in a public symposium at UTMSI’s Patton Center. Do also created reusable curriculum materials, grading rubrics, mentor structures and orientation resources to support future cohorts. Her work helped secure an additional $12,000 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s INSPIRE program to expand the initiative.
Through CC Scholars, Do is helping local students see marine science as an attainable educational and career path while developing the next generation of scientists and advocates for Coastal Bend marine resources.
