As part of this years INNOV8 Lafayette festival, the students of Mrs. Landry’s 7^th grade math class at the Academy of the Sacred Heart (ASH) in Grand Coteau, Louisiana will present Port Fourchon LA:  The Economic Impact of Rising Sea Level on Louisiana Highway 1 to Port Fourchon LA.  Working as "research analysts” for the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) at University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL), students were given the responsibility of gathering data, organizing and analyzing information used to support a federal grant to secure funding for the upgrade of the Port Fourchon facilities.

          Looking for a project to get the girls out of the textbook, out of the classroom and engaged in the application of their math knowledge led Mrs. Landry to Dr. Ramesh Kolluru, Executive Director of NIMSAT on ULL’s campus. 

          The project began with the introduction of the project from Mr. Dean Mallory, NIMSAT Assistant Director.  In order to convince legislators in Washington DC to commit millions of dollars to Louisiana, ASH students were asked to analyze data and determine the economic impact to Louisiana and the nation if a flooded LA-1  prevents vehicles from reaching the facilities at Port Fourchon to service the offshore drilling and production oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

          Port Fourchon is the southernmost road-accessible port in Louisiana.  It is strategically located to most efficiently service 90% of the offshore drilling and production oil and gas platforms in the gulf.  Port Fourchon has a weak spot:  an 8 mile section of LA Highway 1 floods easily and prohibits access to the port facilities and cuts off supplies to the platforms for days.  The economic loss affects the entire nation and we were asked to analyze rising sea level data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NIMSAT. 

          This project based learning endeavor provides students with authentic and open-ended real-life problems.  It centers the responsibility on the student and requires the teacher facilitate learning by only occasionally asking questions and making suggestions.