Debra Brice

Expedition Fellow: Water By Design

Debra Brice is a bilingual science teacher at San Marcos Middle School near San Diego, California, where she currently instructs students in physics, chemistry, and atmospheric science.  She has taught elementary school through college level in Marine Science Education for over 23 years.

Her passion began as a child of 3 watching the legendary Jacques Cousteau and his house under the sea, Conshelf  3 and the many adventures he shared through his TV specials and books.  She knew that’s what she wanted to do with her life.  She became a certified SCUBA diver at 17 years old in 1976, worked as an assistant aquarist at Scripps Aquarium and Hubbs  Research Institute, got her degree from San Diego State, with a minor in Spanish and went to teach English for several years in Mexico. She returned to work as a scientist for an Environmental testing firm doing sedimentation analysis and bioassay before returning to school to get her teaching credential.  Last year her dream came true when she sailed on the R/P Flip and broadcast the “flipping” back into her classroom.  She was then able to take a group of her underwater robotics students for a private meeting with the legendary Dr. Walter Munk  after their tour of FLIP. Inspiring a love of the Ocean and science and giving children the passion to explore and preserve our precious resources is her life’s work.