Professional Development Workshop Day with STArts Magnet Program and Miami Dade County Public Schoolsay

On August 5th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with the Science, Technology, and Arts Exploration & Innovation (STArts) Magnet Program with Miami Dade County Public Schools to host a professional development workshop with three second grade teachers from various Title 1 schools in the Miami Dade area. To start the day, our Educational Outreach Manager, Jack, and our Community Engagement Manager, Lillian, led a presentation on coastal habitats followed by one of our favorite activities, using agamographs to model the before and after of human intervention on one of the habitats we discussed. This professional development workshop served as the inaugural single-day workshop for educators, meant to serve as way to not only expand the teachers’ comfort and knowledge in bringing marine science principles into their own classrooms, but also provide activities and interactive games as well as general SeaKeepers educational resources for the teachers to use. Following our first presentation and discussion, we jumped into our second and third presentations and activities about food webs and marine pollution respectively, with activities Sink or Float meant to test the various types of plastic and their properties as well as Creatures from the Beach, a basic taxonomy and species identification activity. In between each presentation or activity session, our team left time to lead an interactive discussion with the teachers to not only answer questions, but help to address the unique challenges each teacher faces in bringing marine science to their curricula.

As we finished our final activity, our team led one final session of Q&A with the teachers as well as conducted an online survey for the teachers to provide feedback as well as the best place to share the vast digital library of SeaKeepers educational content going forward. These resources include lesson plans, easy to replicate activities, and teaching graphics of various principles. We had a great time working with these teachers and offer a huge thanks to STArts as well as Miami Dade County Public Schools for having and hosting us, and we look forward to future collaborations with more of their teachers and schools!