At the March BEF Board meeting, members learned about a Collaborative Teacher Grant that was awarded to Lucy McNeil, Pierce 6th grade Science teacher, and Stephanie Goodman, Pierce 6th grade English teacher. The goal of the grant was to explore conservation centers in Greece and learn more about conservation efforts to protect biodiversity in the Aegean and Ionian Seas. The teachers traveled to Athens, and the islands of Zakynthos and Paros in Greece to learn firsthand from local educators and conservationists about their efforts and the realities of conservation in an age of increased tourism. Their main takeaways were:
- The impact of tourism on ecosystems and decision making
- The “Greek myth” advertised by governments in order to increase tourism
- You can change your actions based on what you learned. It is never too late to become informed!
- The conflict between preserving cultural identity for a region and working with a shifting global economy
- A slower paced day allows for more deep conversations with people and communities to connect
Following the trip Lucy and Stephanie created a website to highlight their learnings and incorporated their learnings into their class curriculums. Ms. McNeil had students create websites about ocean conservation, which they then presented at a conference in the classroom. Ms. Goodman had students use the turtle tour brochures from Greece to look at rhetorical patterns of persuasion. After learning about turtles and turtle conservation, students then identified which aspects of the tour may not actually be positive for turtle conservation, developing their critical thinking skills around tourism, conservation and advertising.
