Teaching in the time of coronavirus has been very challenging to say the least, but that has not stopped Michealrose Ravalier, Ivanna Eudora Kean High School (IEKHS) teacher, from finding creative ways to engage her students. Ravalier knows that learning is more meaningful if students can relate and interact with their environment. She wondered, “How can I adapt a lab about fruit fly behavior so that it would be more culturally relevant for my students? Our real world is right here in our own backyard, in this case, in our coral reefs.” Last year, Ravalier led students on field trips to Coral World to study corals, marine ecosystems and human impacts on our oceans. That experience led her back to Coral World.
Valerie Peters, Marketing Director of Coral World, quickly agreed to the use of the park as the location for a virtual lab. Peters, who is passionate about bringing the private and public sector together for the benefit of environmental education and has brought ECO Schools to the USVI, was thrilled at the prospect of working on this project. Peters observed, “These types of collaborative efforts are key to engaging students in meaningful project-based learning and to encourage them to be part of finding the solutions to the many sustainability challenges. Read more.
