The Ocean Stewardship Awards are one of the ways that we recognize educators and schools who work to promote an ethic of ocean conservation and who are taking concrete steps to help protect our blue planet. This year, we received a record number of nominations and we were thrilled to hear about all the amazing work being done by both educators and schools in the New England area. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete a nomination. Congratulations to all of our winners!

Winners—Educator Category

Judith Luber-Narod 
Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School
Worcester, Mass.

Judith Luber-Narod, Ocean Stewardship Award educator of the year

Judith first became inspired about our ocean by her high school marine biology teacher.  From there, she studied marine biology as an undergraduate, and took marine biology courses in graduate school. She now brings her knowledge and enthusiasm on the subject to her students.  Since many of them have never visited the ocean, she finds it particularly important to highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the ocean.
Judith teaches environmental science at several levels and provides her students with engaging learning experiences.  In class, she leads her students through several water-related labs.  She also coordinates field trips to various locations, including local lakes for water experiments, Woods Hole for an ocean lab experience and the New England Aquarium.   In addition to her classroom work, Judith serves as the school’s Environmental Action Club faculty advisor which has done all types of projects to decrease global warming, including starting a recycling program, growing an indoor garden, holding a concert to educate the student population using bicycle powered instruments, and many other smaller projects.

Haven Daniels
Perkins Elementary School
South Boston, Mass.

Through Haven’s dedication to her students and ocean stewardship, she creates opportunities for her students to learn about our ocean. Haven has worked with the district’s science department to pilot a new curriculum based on ocean science. To supplement the classroom lessons on topics such as food webs, ocean pollutants and fishing regulations, Haven makes sure that her students connect to the physical marine environment. She takes her students on field trips to the harbor, writes grants to get her students to the harbor islands for tidepooling and actively collaborates with other teachers to provide enriching experiences. She organizes parent and community events where her students share their experiences, thereby making others more aware of ocean stewardship as well.

In addition to her work with students, Haven is a model educator who shares her expertise with others. Beyond using the harbor as a foundation for teaching complex science topics and environmental stewardship, Haven continually reflects on this practice with her colleagues involving herself in teacher research projects and multi-school field experiences. In collaboration with other teachers, Haven has presented this work at national conferences such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Research in Science Teaching (NARST).

Honorable Mentions—Educator Category

Alicia Carey
Oliver H. Perry K-8 School
South Boston, Mass.

Alicia creates an amazing ethic of care and respect overall in her classroom, and works with her students to extend that ethic of care to the natural world.  Since their school is across the street from the beach, that ethic extends easily to the ocean.  She is not the students' science teacher, but she wants her students to have an appreciation for their coastal environment and their place in it.  For the past three years, a required narrative project has focused on coastal organisms, tied to a field experience across the street to 'their' beach.  The students have also traveled to the Aquarium, where their work has focused on local coastal organisms.

Robert Coughlin
Brockton High School
Brockton, Mass.

Robert Coughlin, Ocean Stewardship Award educator of the year

Robert Coughlin’s classroom is full of life from across the trophic levels which is just one of the reasons that make his oceanography course so popular among students at Brockton High School.  During class, he leads students through many group projects in which they collect organisms, make observations and collect data.  In addition, he organizes a deep-sea fishing trip to Stellwagen Bank every spring.  This is an extraordinary experience as many of his students have never been on a boat and some have never been to the ocean.  On this trip, students discover an entirely new ecosystem and it is that firsthand experience that gives them reason to care about and become passionate about the environment.   Mr. Coughlin’s passion, exuberance, charisma and mastery of the subject matter are truly inspirational to his students and colleagues.

Rachel Cuddeback
Pollard Middle School
Needham, Mass.



Rachel has a contagious excitement about teaching and she works persistently to build out a dynamic, student driven, inquiry-based, ocean focused curriculum. She is an active educator who consistently seeks to further her own education of science and technology concepts and readily applies them to her instruction.  On a limited budget, she manages to excite and inspire her students to become ocean experts and stewards.  Rachel has created an ocean-focused theme that spans multiple units and largely directed by student-generated questions.  She utilizes a local pond to teach water quality and large-scale maps to outline watersheds.  In addition, she brings in guest speakers from the local wastewater treatment plant into her classroom.  Ocean literacy permeates the bulk of Rachel’s science curriculum.   She is a genuine educator who strives to improve her practice for the benefit of her whole community.

Look back at previous educator winners here!

Winners—School Category

Adams School Calvineers
Castine, Maine
(Faculty Advisor – Bill McWeeny)

Front row (L/R): Liam Griffith, Grant Forbes, Drake Janes, Tyler McKenney, Sam Ravell, India Janes, and Savanna Colson. Back row (L/R): Bill McWeeny, John Hassett, Yvonne Rogers, Ben Burton, Hannah Flood

The Adams School Calvineers are a group of 7th and 8th graders who work tirelessly to raise awareness about the plight of the North American right whales. The group is led by Bill McWeeny, an educator whose love for the ocean is only surpassed by his love for teaching. The Calvineers work hard both in class and after school to learn about these endangered animals. As a group, they act as scientists to gather information, collaborate and communicate with others. The Calvineers also take action to protect right whales by speaking with shipping companies and coordinating other projects.
But their work does not stop there – they take their passion for this important issue and work hard to spread the word! From presenting at schools and conferences to updating regular Tumblr (include hyperlink - http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCalvineers ) and YouTube (include hyperlink - http://thecalvinproject.tumblr.com/ ) accounts. This fall, two students will even present their original work at the Right Whale Consortium (include hyperlink - http://www.narwc.org/ ). The Calvineers, without a doubt, are true ocean stewards who are dedicated to taking steps to protect our ocean and its inhabitants and to promoting an ethic of ocean conservation in their community.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Marine Conservation Club 
Cambridge, Mass.
(Faculty Advisor – Paul McGuiness)

The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Marine Conservation Club is a group of 20 students who are dedicated to raising awareness about the challenges impacting right whales. Driven for by their love for the ocean and its inhabitants, the club works hard to incorporate an ethic of conservation into their school and community. This year, they organized an amazing week of events for a ‘Whale Week’ at their school – including school wide activities such as games and presentations. They also held bake and snack sales to raise money for the Right Whale Research Team. They are currently collaborating with middle and after school teachers to run a two-day session in classrooms. Through action and education, the CRLS Marine Conservation have proven to be ocean stewards, collaborating with both school and community to promote and protect our ocean.

Look back at previous award winning schools here!

The New England Aquarium Education Department hosted a climate change activity with two classrooms from across the U.S. using Google+ Hangouts on Air on November 7, 2012. Here's the video of that presentation.




 



About the Activity: Sink or Source
This activity helps explain the carbon cycle and the imbalance in the carbon cycle. A quick look at some of the largest carbon sources helps visitors understand that the imbalance is anthropogenic and leads to important discussions about actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint. This activity is designed for adults, families, or kids ages 9 and older with their families. Some younger children have been engaged by this activity and can help with sorting. Get resources to do the activity in your own home or classroom.

 
The New England Aquarium and Climate Change Education
As public understanding of climate change lags behind the consensus among scientists, the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2009 has been developing the Climate Change Education Partnership program to help the public better weigh the evidence of human-climate interactions. Late Wednesday, NSF announced the awards in its most recent round of funding and granted $5.5 million over five years to the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation led by the New England Aquarium. Read more.

You can join in on future hangouts like this by connecting with Aquarium on Google+. 

RELATED: The Aquarium's climate change programming was recently featured in a New York Times article. Aquarium president Bud Ris is quoted in the piece saying, "We would like as many people, if not everyone, to leave encouraged to take action."

The National Science Foundation Awards $5.5 Million Grant for Climate Change Education at Aquariums and Zoos : New England Aquarium Leads Consortium
 
As public understanding of climate change lags behind the consensus among scientists, the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2009 has been developing the Climate Change Education Partnership program to help the public better weigh the evidence of human-climate interactions. Late Wednesday, NSF announced the awards in its most recent round of funding and granted $5.5 million over five years to the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation led by the New England Aquarium.



The network is a national effort to enable informal science education institutions, such as aquariums and zoos, to better communicate the science of climate change and its impacts on marine ecosystems. The goal of the program is to research communication strategies that more effectively explain the complex processes of climate change and to train educational staff at informal science venues in those techniques. Bud Ris, President and CEO of the New England Aquarium stated, “We are aiming to shift the dialogue about climate change to a tone that is interesting, positive and leads to a problem solving mind set. The network’s challenge is to engage Americans in seeing themselves as part of the stories that they find in our exhibits.”



Among the partners are Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, FrameWorks Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and National Aquarium in Baltimore. Evaluation will be conducted by the New Knowledge Organization, Pennsylvania State University and Ohio’s Center for Science and Industry.



In a given year, more than 60 percent of the American public visits an informal science venue, such as zoos or aquariums. Dr. Paul Boyle, senior scientist for conservation and education at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums noted, “People trust AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums for accurate science education. This climate change education partnership is applying social and cognitive techniques to give front-line interpreters skills in explaining complex topics like climate change in the widely engaging arena of informal science education.”



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is the science partner for the project. Senior WHOI graduate students will provide up to date scientific information about climate change, the role of the ocean in climate change and climate change impacts on ocean chemistry and its ecosystems.

FrameWorks Institute identifies and models relevant communications research that can help interpreters frame the public discourse about climate change at informal science education venues.

“The grant will allow the partnership to scale up its training to hundreds of informal science venues nationwide through both in-person and on-line training models,” said New England Aquarium vice president Billy Spitzer, “With the effects of climate change in the news on a near daily basis, there is an increasing need for more discussion and understanding of these complex issues and challenges.”

RELATED: The Aquarium's climate change programming was recently featured in a New York Times article. Aquarium president Bud Ris is quoted in the piece saying, "We would like as many people, if not everyone, to leave encouraged to take action."

On Monday, March 28, Coleen O'Connell gave a free Aquarium Lecture about her mission to instill in children the confidence and ability to tackle the complex issues that are hurtling toward them. The lecture was webcast here.

O’Connell is on the faculty in the Environmental Studies Division of Lesley University in Cambridge. She designed and has been the lead faculty member in the Ecological Teaching and Learning MS Program. This program, the first of its kind, works with formal and informal educators to make complex systems thinking and ecological principles the foundation of their teaching practices. As an ecological educator for 30 years, she has traveled extensively with the Audubon Expedition Institute and Living Routes programs. She has been active in the New England environmental education community for 20 years and founded Ravenwood Sustainability Education Program with colleagues on 170 acres in Maine.

The next Aquarium lecture will be given by New England Aquarium Research Scientist Dr. Randi Rotjan, entitled "Corallivore’s Dilemma: Understanding the Relationship between Fish and the Corals They Consume." Note that it will not be webcast. Register to attend that free lecture in person here.
 
The Aquarium has been providing free lectures and films by scientists, environmental writers, photographers and others since 1972. The Aquarium Lecture Series is presented free to the public through the generosity of the Lowell Institute, which has been providing funding for free public lectures at universities and museums since 1836.