Overview

On Wednesday, July 12th, 2023, The International SeaKeepers Society facilitated an in-classroom marine science lesson and hands-on activity to two groups of middle school students participating in CauseCamps, a summer camp experience hosted by Blue Missions which aims to teach students about global issues by taking local action to become the future sustainability leaders of tomorrow.

The weekly theme for CauseCamps participants was “Rewilding the Wild,” which had the goal of informing students about ongoing efforts to preserve, conserve, and restore natural ecosystems both locally and globally. As a result, SeaKeepers’ Education Manager, Toni Lohroff, started off the lesson with a short talk on the meaning of “rewilding” and efforts occurring through work with our partner organizations, citizen scientists, and marine researchers around the world. Featured projects included ongoing studies of “urbanized” shark populations in Miami and the treatment of coral diseases influenced by climate change and pollution in the Bahamas.

After discussing some unique challenges of rewilding, especially in urbanized areas, students were able to partake in two different hands-on activities. First was a coastal ecosystems competitive quiz which tested student knowledge of local habitats and the anthropogenic challenges they face, which got participants energized and excited about this type of information. Finally, each group completed the lesson with our “Harbor Heroes” activity, where students were prompted with positive and negative situations that impacted coastal communities that moved them down a track to reach healthy coastlines.