UGA Virtual Education Series
Visitor Services Partner of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
By Emily Woodward Kenworthy Public Relations Coordinator UGA Marine Extension and Georgai Sea Grant
Canoe and Kayak Rentals Guided Paddling and Boat Tours Authentic Swamper Homestead Boardwalk and Observation Tower, Gift shop and Cafe www.okefenokeeadventures.com
O
n the deck of the Sea Dawg, Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s 43-foot research vessel, marine educator Dodie Sanders sets up her computer, webcam and teaching props, which include live fish, corals and a stingray. She introduces herself through her webcam and asks her first question, “What do we call water that’s in between fresh and salty?” “Brackish!” responds a chorus of students from the speakers of her computer. A few hundred miles away in Rome, Georgia, 25 fifth graders at the Darlington School are watching Sanders’ program on their iPads. Typically, this conversation would happen aboard the Sea Dawg while trawling for live specimens in Wassaw Sound. For the next two days, educators at UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Marine Education Center and Aquarium are bringing the on-site, outdoor experiences to the classroom for the first time by way of virtual school trips. Sanders describes the importance of Georgia’s brackish water estuaries where so many different species, like red drum, shrimp and blue crabs spend all or part of their lives. She talks about the different animals in her touch tank, explaining the physical and biological characteristics that are unique to each animal. The educational trawl is just one of 16 different virtual classes now available to K-12 classrooms across the state. Available classes include marine debris, squid dissection, maritime forest hikes and more. “Shifting from on-site to virtual programs has made us approach everything we do from a very different perspective with the goal of creating meaningful and impactful education programs,” says Sanders, who, along with her marine educator colleagues, spent several months modifying on-site programs for a virtual setting. “How do you virtually capture searching for invertebrates living on the underside of a floating dock, the smell of salt marsh mud, hiking across an undeveloped barrier island, or touching cool organisms collected in a trawl net?” Sanders asks. “We’re incorporating the same teaching methods, the same tricks of the trade but perhaps on a more complicated and elevated level.”
4159 Suwannee Canal Road Folkston, GA 866-THE-SWAMP
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Fish Tales 727.3473 • Ft. McAllister Marina 727.2632 3203 Ft. McAllister Road • Richmond Hill, GA • SM 605
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Southern Tides Magazine
February 2021
