[Coral-List] Contents of Coral-List digest...Education... (Rusty Barnett)

Sun Apr 9 13:13:01 EDT 2006

Hello dear Coral List,

In addition to Rusty Barnett, who posted recently his observations in
regards to educating the public and kids...

I agree with the author in regards to the danger of 'reinventing the
wheel' when it comes to publications, courses, workshops or else to be
used in public outreach. There are a lot of great educational products
out there that can be used. In addition to those mentioned by Rusty
Barnett, I would like to add the following publication: 'People and
Corals - an education pack for Caribbean primary schools' - a 150 pages
strong and very well designed booklet containing straightforward text
and images, resource sheets and worksheets for the youngsters. Published
by the Caribbean Conservation Association, this workbook will be made
available for free on our e-Learning platform at
www.academy.beautifuloceans.com. I will post here once it is done. Does
anyone know about a similar publication about the Pacific coral reefs?

To answer your question in terms of adult outreach & education,
Beautiful Oceans offers scientifically validated coral reef science
courses for what we call eco-divers. For us, everything stems from a
simple observation: "...We will conserve only what we love, we will love
only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught."
(Baba Dieum, Senegalese Ecologist). 

We also try outreach through our blog & podcast (audio discussions, and
soon coral reef video footage) at www.blog.beautifuloceans.com. This
platform will also be used to interview scientists and people involved
in marine conservation to broadcast to a large audience through the
Internet.

Beautiful Oceans is a business, donating 10% of its profits to partner
organizations working in the field of marine conservation. We have
decided to also provide our courses for free to kids in local
communities with established 'Science Dive Centers' and do so through
Secondary Schools because we think that education and the build-up of
environmental awareness must reach out to a broad audience of young
people.

In answer to your idea 'Getting as many people diving in an educated
manner as possible ("people protect what they love")?' - maybe... - but
I also think that the term eco-tourism bears a contradiction in itslef:
the more successful it becomes, the less 'eco' it is - we never avoid
the fact that wherever mankind sets it foot, there is (a usually
negative) impact. The best eco-tourism is no tourism at all... but that
is an entirely different discussion.

Have a good day, 
Stephan 

-----Original Message-----
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Sent: April 9, 2006 12:00 PM
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Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 34, Issue 10

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Today's Topics:

   1. Coral recruit study (Adrian Maldonado)
   2. Education... (Rusty Barnett)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 14:08:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: Adrian Maldonado <adrian_mg at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Coral recruit study
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <20060408190848.2561.qmail at web38913.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello Yogesh kumar

  Check this abstract 

http://rcmarinas.ens.uabc.mx/%7Epagina/resumenes/2005/31-1A/cm05-31-1A-9
res.pdf

  Adrian Maldonado
  Mexico

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Espacio para todos tus mensajes, antivirus y antispam ?gratis! 
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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 13:30:50 -0600
From: "Rusty Barnett" <bralice1002 at qwest.net>
Subject: [Coral-List] Education...
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <022501c65b42$f1f82b20$0700a8c0 at D54VP941>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hello Coral Listers,

I have been following the discussion about educating the public...and
especially the kids...as I have had time, and I had a couple of comments
to add.

There have been a number of good ideas floated, but there seems to be
some danger of "reinventing the wheel".  There are already a number of
good kid's programs out there that just need the volunteers with the
time to administer them in the schools.  A couple that come to mind are
PADI's "AWARE Kids" (www.projectaware.org) and the Oceans for Youth
Foundation (www.oceansforyouth.com).  It has been my experience that
elementary schools in particular are often VERY interested in having
folks (especially scientists) come in and do these sorts of programs,
especially when they are done on a volunteer basis (budgets can be
tight, as we all know).  I have done a few talks at schools, and plan to
do more now as my youngest will soon be in full day school.  The AWARE
Kids materials are well suited to having the classroom teacher present
them.  The Oceans for Youth campaign is looking for volunteers to go
into the schools, and I plan to look into that soon.  Both have
professional, "sl
 ick" materials & DVD's associated with them.  There may well be others,
but these are the two with which I am familiar.

As for the adults, I don't know what the best answer is.  When I was a
kid, the "Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" was avidly watched by
many, even with the competition from the space program.  I used to be on
the board of directors of a major underwater film festival & dive show,
and there was a growing sense that it just wasn't as easy to grab
people's interest & sell out the film festival showings anymore.  Maybe
the "novelty" wore off...after all, with hundreds of satellite channels
available and things like "Shark Week", there is a lot of competition
for people's interest.  It will be interesting to see how JM Cousteau's
new show does on PBS...I saw the first installment, and it did seem to
have some good photography (and certainly a well-known name...).  I
think that many people are concerned about the environment, but I think
many feel overwhelmed by what they hear.  We must be careful as
educators to avoid hyperbole, overgeneralizations and overstatements of
what is
  known (rather than assumed) with regard to things like global warming,
etc. or risk looking like "Chicken Little".  

So, after my rambling, what do YOU think the answer to adult outreach &
education is (aside from the previously discussed "sexy scientist"
idea)?  Higher-profile documentaries on TV (i.e. Cousteau, etc)?
Getting as many people diving in an educated manner as possible ("people
protect what they love")?  Political action (scary, can impinge on your
perceived objectivity as a scientist)?  Your ideas?

Rusty

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