CMGL Students Participate in the Texas High School Monitoring Program By: Melinda Martinez                 MS students, Michael Rittenhouse and Melinda Martinez, assisted Tiffany Caudle from the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, on Friday, January 31st to engage students from Cunningham Middle School in coastal research through the Texas High School Coastal Monitoring Program.   Figure 1. Michael Rittenhouse with middle school students measuring the wave period by counting waves at a certain point for 10 seconds. Photo credit: Melinda Martinez. Students were able to apply scientific procedures to measure beach morphology and learn about beach processes, shoreline mapping, and beach profiling on Mustang Island, TX. Students began the beach survey at a permanent stake located in the back dunes and measured elevations every 1-2m along a transect perpendicular to the beach to the shoreline. Beach profiling tools included an emery rod, metric tape, and a hand level. Beach processes measurements and observations were made for wind and wave direction, wind speed, wave height and period, types of waves, width of surf zone, and longshore current speed (Figure 1). Beach processes tools included a floating device, measuring tape, stopwatch, portable wind meter, and compass. Students were also able to map both shoreline and vegetation line using a handheld GPS to record the location of these features while walking.  Figure 2. Tiffany Caudle drawing a general overview a beach profile in the sand. Photo Credit: Melinda Martinez. The students were able to participate in actual research and enhance their coastal science education while providing useful data for the program to monitor coastal processes (Figure 2). These measurements are compared to previously taken data to provide the rate of shoreline change.