Connecting Schools with Ocean Science
Birch Aquarium at Scripps is a MARE Center serving K-8 teachers and students
Early in her teaching career, Roberta Dean was leading an elementary
class on a field trip to Bodega Bay, when the class witnessed dead
birds floating from an oil spill that had occurred offshore. This
ecological disaster inspired Dean in her work developing marine science
curriculum and cemented her commitment to working with children and
teachers in ocean literacy and conservation.
"The more our youth know about ocean habitats, the more they care about
how they work," said Dean. "Ocean literacy needs to start early if we
want kids to understand some of the issues that we are facing on our
fast-changing planet."
Dean is co-founder of Marine Activities and Resources Education (MARE),
a national ocean literacy project that began in 1986 to connect
elementary and middle school teachers with ocean science research. MARE
is centered out of Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.
Several years ago, Dean helped establish Birch Aquarium at Scripps as a
national MARE Center. As a Center, aquarium educators host
habitat-focused workshops and a summer course for teachers in grades
K-8 that introduce inquiry-based strategies and ways to effectively
incorporate technology and math and science literacy into science
programs.
"MARE's focus is on delivering hands-on ocean science as a functional
part of a school's curriculum," said Dean. "It works with real
materials that engage students' interests and provides opportunities
for in-depth investigations-not just sitting and reading a book about
it."
When a school hosts an "Ocean Week" or "Ocean Month," parents, teachers
and students are all involved in ocean science. Subjects such as
language, math, the arts-all turn into ocean-inspired school projects.
"Students' understanding of habitats spirals up through grade levels,"
said Dean. A workshop on ponds, for example, is offered for
kindergarten educators, leading to more obscure habitats, such as the
kelp forest in upper grades. The Rocky Seashore Habitat Workshop for
grades K-2 offers materials in Spanish.
MARE promotes stewardship of the natural world by connecting teachers
and students with organizations that manage coastal resources. These
field trip destinations help students explore habitats they may not
have access to on their own.
Today, more than 600 schools in the country are linked with MARE, with
Centers in California, Oregon, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas and
internationally in Finland, Japan, and Mexico.
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