The Necessary Renewal

Ocean research and advocacy organizations are alive and well. However, ocean education receives a mere fraction of overall budgets of these organizations. Educational programs are cut and staff positions remain unfilled. If this situation is so dire, why are we not moving beyond understanding of parameters to get to very specific action and ideas?

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will assert that the time has come to gather teachers and administrators together to take the necessary steps to bring ocean programs into the classroom--not just once but on a continuing basis. While the inhibiting factors are many, these same individuals must be empowered to take the necessary steps in approach and structure that will enable change. Leaders in ocean science and education, research and policy must accept this mandate for renewal--revitalization of not what we teach but how we teach it.

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Peter Neill, Director of the W2O and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by community radio stations worldwide.

Image: Middle school students learn about the ocean from Project Oceanology staff. Credit: Christine Sziabowski