Robert Ballard, the man who discovered the Titanic, the Bismark, the PT-109, the Kiroshima (a Japanese battleship), and many other sunken wrecks, gave a talk in Los Angeles which I was lucky enough to attend.

I hubbed on Dr. Ballard's Black Sea explorations before (you can also read about it at the IAO site), so I won't repeat myself. If you want to read about the Byzantine shipwreck he found, find out why the ships in the Black Sea don't rot into nothing, and see some amazing pictures, please read that hub first.

In this hub, I want to highlight the organizations and websites Dr. Ballard has set up for kids and armchair adventurers.

In the week after the announcement that the Titanic had been found, Ballard received 16,000 letters from kids. Most wanted to know if they could go with him on his next voyage. The discovery of the Titanic and the awesome pictures of the wreck sparked the imaginations of children as well as adults.

Ballard realized that the hunger for learning had to be nurtured, and so he established The Jason Project : a non-profit subsidiary to the National Geographic Society and a "Gateway to Adventure." Its target audience: middle school kids (roughly ages 10-13).

Right now, the focus is on Monster Storms. Jason offers podcasts, webcasts, videos, games (with multiple online players), chats, and computer simulations of on-going scientific projects, like flying into the eye of a hurricane or chasing tornadoes online.

That same age group is targeted by The Immersion Project, set up by Ballard in 2002. Like the Jason Project, Immersion is available to any kids who go online to register. Also like Jason, it pulls together scientific experts and data from all over to design exciting, state-of-the-art programs.

One week a year, the Immersion Project broadcasts live from a current oceanic research expedition. Activities and DVDs support the broadcasts. Completed, past projects can be watched and studied too. These include:

• The Black Sea exploration, which was broadcast live in August, 2007. You can watch the videos of each day's work and discoveries.
• In 2004, Ballard returned to the Titanic site. Kids can make their own movies of the Titanic or review the dives and videos.
• Another project is the Dolphin communication studies--read daily log entries from all over the world by scientists and students studying dolphin behavior, biology, and sound.
• In March, 2007, two ships studied manta rays, underwater volcanoes, and ancient shorelines in Gulf of Mexico. Videos, data, logs, and pictures are all available for that project

In March of 2008, The Immersion Project will head out to Monterey Bay in Northern California, to explore submarine canyons, kelp forests, estuaries, and other underwater ecosystems. There will be live programs each day--read about it here.