Classroom Lesson with Wardlaw and Hartridge Elementary School

Overview

On March 4th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a classroom lesson virtually with 23 2nd and 3rd grade students as well as 3 educators from the Wardlaw and Hartridge School in New Jersey. Our Community Engagement Associate, Lillian, and our Educational Outreach Associate, Jack, led a lesson focused on the ecology, biology, and unique trophic roles of corals and coral reef ecosystems worldwide. We highlighted the importance of coral reefs for the ecosystem services they provide, the nature of their symbiosis with zooxanthellae, as well as the threats affecting corals that our daily actions can help mitigate. After the lesson, our students had a chance to ask questions on what we discussed as well as the experiences of our team. Finally, the students got a chance to flex their muscles and show what they learned through some coral trivia questions, where they proved to be quick learners and natural marine scientists in the making! We give a huge thank you to the students of Wardlaw and Hartridge for their hard work as well as the teachers for hosting us.