Educational Presentation at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School

Overview

On Thursday, March 7th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society’s education team visited Belen Jesuit Preparatory School for a presentation to 85 junior high-aged students across their Fishing Club, Climate Awareness Club, Green Club, and Junior National Honors Society. Our Education Manager, Toni, gave a presentation on the importance of coastal habitats and the challenges they face, as well as "rewilding the wild", teaching students about how we can preserve, conserve, and restore local South Florida species and habitats. One of the specific topics that we covered was the historical changes in Florida’s landscape, particularly how water flow through the Everglades has been altered by human development. These changes in water flow can introduce pollution, impact water chemistry, and lead to erosion, amongst other things. As a result, changes in water flow affect mangrove ecosystems, coral reefs, wetlands, seagrass beds, and all of the animals that rely on these habitats such as manatees, birds, fish, and humans!

We finished our lesson with a Kahoot! quizzing students on some of the information they learned from our presentation as well as general marine science knowledge, marine conservation vocabulary, and South Florida coastal health statistics. We look forward to interacting with these students again on floating classroom activities to follow throughtout the year!

Outing Goal

To enhance the knowledge of the students of Belen Jesuit Preparatory School about the importance of South Florida coastal habitats, as well as the ecological concepts of conservation, restoration, and preservation.