{"id":20607,"date":"2013-11-11T07:34:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T12:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=20607"},"modified":"2013-11-11T07:39:14","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T12:39:14","slug":"how-south-florida-kids-learn-about-sea-level-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/11\/11\/how-south-florida-kids-learn-about-sea-level-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"How South Florida Kids Learn About Sea-Level Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standing at the water\u2019s edge on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus,\u00a0Nicholas Ogle\u00a0shows a crowd of teenagers what looks like a giant, rotten green bean.<\/p>\n

\"Nicholas<\/a>

Credit Daniel Rivera, Student \/ Nicholas Ogle<\/p>

Nicholas Ogle will replant the mangrove propagules collected by MAST students.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want any mushiness anywhere, especially at the top,\u201d he says, then chucks the specimen to the side.<\/p>\n

Ogle, an environmental coordinator with FIU, is showing this marine-science class from the new\u00a0MAST magnet school<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0FIU\u00a0how to pick out a healthy mangrove seedling. The students will then be sent to duck in and out of the mangrove roots at the coastline, collecting seedlings \u2014\u00a0\u201cpropagules,\u201d the scientist calls them \u2014 to eventually be replanted in a mangrove restoration project.<\/p>\n

Mangroves are often cited as\u00a0a first line of defense<\/a>\u00a0against the impact of sea-level rise. And in many ways, so is this interaction between the students and Ogle.\u00a0\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/11\/SI_SLR_ed_mono_summed_web.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n

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Florida doesn\u2019t require students to learn about the effects of climate change <\/a>\u2014 such as sea-level rise \u2014 until high school.But in South Florida,\u00a0<\/strong>kids observe rising oceans all around them.\u00a0 They see them on television, online and in-person.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the sea level in Miami has risen more than nine inches in the past 100 years \u2014 and scientists expect a big increase in the next century.<\/p>\n

So South Florida schools and outside organizations are forming partnerships to build an educational bridge connecting what students learn in school to what they see in their changing environments.<\/p>\n

From Backyard To Classroom<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>

Sammy Mack \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Students with MAST at FIU collect mangrove propagules for a restoration project.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTo have kids be outside, to see what life is like around here in the natural world \u2026 that really shapes the way they\u2019re going to be in the future,\u201d says Kirk Nieveen,\u00a0a science-curriculum support specialist for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.<\/p>\n

Nieveen says South Florida schools introduce local climate science as early as the elementary level. In Miami-Dade County alone, 66 schools offer environmental- or marine-science education. MAST at FIU and a dozen other schools focus on the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to scare kids,\u201d Nieveen says, \u201cbut at the same time, you want them to become aware of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was pleasantly surprised to see\u00a0recent news coverage<\/a>\u00a0of Miami Beach’s astronomical spring tide, also called “King Tide,” that looked a lot like tidal modeling taught in Miami-Dade schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe build the foundation within school curriculum and then also provide opportunities for kids to get involved locally,\u201d Nieveen says.<\/p>\n

Those opportunities often come from partnerships with environmental nonprofits, like the environmental curriculum offered through the\u00a0Fairchild Challenge<\/a>\u00a0at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, or the Everglades field trips led by the\u00a0Arthur R. Marshall Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mary Crider, an education specialist with the Marshall Foundation, recently designed a sea-level rise curriculum that she plans to bring to classrooms across South Florida. She says empowering students to act on seal-level rise is key to helping them learn, without making them feel overwhelmed and defeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s phases that they go through when they get all this information,\u201d Crider says. \u201cThe first one is kind of just, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to happen? I think I\u2019ll just ignore it.’ The next phase, they\u2019re like, ‘Okay, I think I can absorb this information, but now what can I do?’ \u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Crider gives students a list of “next steps” that includes tips such as: document what you see on social media; talk to family and friends about what you\u2019ve learned; and connect with local clubs, libraries and science museums.<\/p>\n

The Young Environmentalist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crider’s approach has worked for Miami Beach resident Alejandra Andavert-Seemann.<\/p>\n

\"Alejandra<\/a>

Sammy Mack \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Alejandra Andavert-Seemann loves sea turtles and worries about sea-level rise.<\/p><\/div>\n

At 9 years old, Alejandra carries business cards. She likes spending weekends picking up trash on the beach with her best friend. Sometimes she brings her dog.<\/p>\n

Last year, she ran for third-grade class president. Her platform? Sea turtles. When she won, she followed through on her campaign promise and helped the class adopt three turtles: Lee, Marmalade and Toby.<\/p>\n

Alejandra is concerned about sea-level rise. She worries about ice caps melting and polar bears dying. She worries the land in her neighborhood will be underwater.<\/p>\n

But she says she tries not to think about it too much. She thinks people can do a better job of preventing catastrophe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should try to tell people and put signs up, or make it that we have to stop littering,” she says. “And try to help the environment more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes Alejandra gets a little too concerned and you want to make sure it\u2019s something under her control,\u201d says Alejandra\u2019s mom, Stephanie. \u201cWe talk about cleaning bottle caps off the beach, [removing] plastic bags out of the water \u2014 things under her control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future Generations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corbin Bolies, 15, can\u2019t remember when he first learned about sea-level rise. It\u2019s just part of his life. But he thinks most adults don\u2019t really get it yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as they learn more about it, as it\u2019s coming on the news, I feel they\u2019ll start worrying,\u201d Bolies says, watching his MAST classmates root around mangroves looking for seedlings.\u00a0\u201cBy the time my children have their own children, the coastline\u2019s going to be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than fret, though, the 15-year-old takes charge.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s us that\u2019s making the sea level rise along with natural factors,” he says, “but we as humans should feel compelled to help restore our earth to its natural beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing at the water\u2019s edge on Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay campus,\u00a0Nicholas Ogle\u00a0shows a crowd of teenagers what looks like a giant, rotten green bean. \u201cWe don\u2019t want any mushiness anywhere, especially at the top,\u201d he says, then chucks the specimen to the side. Ogle, an environmental coordinator with FIU, is showing this marine-science class […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[802,876],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20607"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20615,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20607\/revisions\/20615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}