Students help develop new coral reef curriculum

First and second grade students at the Saipan SDA Elementary School have helped guide the creation of a new coral reef curriculum over the past month. Guided by a marine scientist from the Pacific Marine Resource Institute, students have participated in hour-long classes, listening, drawing, coloring and writing about coral reef animals, environments and ecology. Their direct input into what was fun and what was boring has helped create the framework for a set of four weeklong coral reef units.

While each unit, —covering diversity, ecology, habitats and conservation, —can be used on its own, the whole of the project is designed to emphasize connectivity of animals and environments. A coral reef bulletin board served as a focus for activities during the project. The students worked together to populate their coral reef with coral, marine plants, fish and invertebrates. By helping to constructing a coral reef from the bottom up, students learned not only about all the different organisms on a coral reef, but how they fit together through interactions like a giant jig-saw puzzle.

Towards the end of their classes, students were asked to write about what they would see on coral reefs if they were to go scuba diving. Jirene Lacorte (2nd Grade) wrote, “I would like to try to go scuba diving but am too young to try it. My parents said I will be able to try it when I grow up. Right now, I will just imagine what it feels like and what are the things I will be able to see if I go scuba diving. I can see blue starfish, black sea urchins, black babalate’ [sea cucumber], red crabs, colorful fishes, peach squid and purple octopus with eight arms. Maybe I will see the orange Nemo.”

John Hofschneider (2nd Grade) wrote, “I would put on my scuba suit to see the different kinds of corals. I would like to see the red fire coral. I learned that red fire corals could sting you. It would be nice to see other corals too, like the coral that looks like a fan with fingers.”

Rebecca Cepeda (1st Grade), seemed to be hooked on marine life, and wrote, “…I would feel excited to tell all my friends and families about my underwater coral reef adventure. Therefore, I would be very happy if I see many different kinds of underwater creatures in their habitats. Also, I would be very interested to learn about how they live and see them in real life. Snorkeling will be one of my favorite hobbies in the future.”

Several of the students had conservation messages to share. Erin Mendiola (2nd Grade) wrote, “ Coral reefs are one of the most beautiful things on earth. People living in colder regions envy the lives we live in the tropics. People will pay a lot of money just to come to the tropics to scuba dive or go snorkeling. We must be cautious and continue to take care of the environment.”

Kozo Litulumar (2nd Grade) wrote, “If you go scuba diving now a days, you will …get to see [that] some corals are dying. It is so sad to see that not many fish are around the corals because some of the corals are dying, not only from people collecting coral, but from all the pollution going into our water. I hope that in the future, people will take things seriously and help save the corals. So if anyone sees people getting corals please let’s not be afraid and report these offenders to the right department.”

As the above comments show, the students took coral reefs environments and issues to heart. The Pacific Marine Resource Institute extends a heartfelt thanks to first and second grade teacher, Miss Asanuma, for her enthusiastic participation in this project. And of course, special thanks to the first and second graders who had so much fun learning about our local environment.

The next stage of this project is to further refine these curricula with the assistance of teachers in other schools. Teachers interested in using these units may contact PMRI at pacificmarineresourcesinstitute@yahoo.com or see the PMRI web site http://www.pacmares.com for additional information. (John Starmer)

John Starmer is a marine biologist, and president of Pacific Marine Resources Institute.