Associate Specialist Joanna Philippoff was awarded a $73,000 grant from National Geographic to conduct marine science education workshops for teachers in Fiji and on O‘ahu. Part of a National Geographic Pristine Seas initiative called The Global Ocean, Philippoff will lead Our Project In Hawai‘i’s Intertidal (OPIHI): Pacific Collaborations.
Together with co-directors Kanesa Duncan Seraphin and Anne Rosa of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant, and Anuschka Faucci of Leeward Community College, Philippoff will conduct professional learning workshops focused on training teachers to lead their students in monitoring their local intertidal areas with Fijian educators in September and with educators on O‘ahu next spring. They will also work with Fijian educators, scientists, and community experts to create a Fiji intertidal identification guide.
The intertidal exists at the interface between land and sea, making it ecologically unique as well as culturally and economically important. In both Hawai‘i and Fiji, algae and invertebrates harvested from the intertidal are utilized for food, medicine, and religious ceremonial purposes.
“The intertidal on Pacific Islands is often overlooked despite its cultural importance,” shared Faucci. “The ‘opihi limpet, our OPIHI project’s namesake, lives in the Hawaiian intertidal and is an important component of Hawaiian culinary culture.
OPIHI: Pacific Collaborations leverages 20 years of OPIHI with support from the National Science Foundation, the NOAA Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program, UH Mānoa’s College of Education and SEED program, and Hawaiʻi Sea Grant. Over this time, OPIHI has engaged more than 100 teachers and 3,700 students grades 5–12 in monitoring 32 rocky intertidal sites across the Hawaiian islands.
“We are excited to expand this program beyond Hawai‘i and connect teachers across the Pacific in learning about and sharing their intertidal experiences” said Philippoff. Duncan Seraphin added, “We are looking forward to learning from Fijian colleagues and teachers whose knowledge will enhance the OPIHI project.”
This project will train 20 teachers (10 in Hawaiʻi and 10 in Fiji) who will subsequently train their students to survey the intertidal using standard ecological protocols to determine if and how the intertidal community is changing over time. Based on a class size of 20 students, approximately 400 students will participate in this project.
“Participation in the program aims to enhance teachers’ ocean literacy, understanding of the scientific process, and self-efficacy to engage in outdoor explorations with their students,” Philippoff said. “This will extend and amplify the scientific and educational impact of OPIHI, utilizing and leveraging existing resources and knowledge-base to build capacity across the Pacific.”
- PI: Joanna Philippoff, Associate Specialist of Science Education (COE)
- co-PI: Anuschka Faucci, Instructor (Math & Sciences, Leeward Community College)
- co-PI: Anne Rosa, Marine Education Specialist (Sea Grant, SOEST)
- co-PI: Kanesa Duncan Seraphin, Assistant Director for Education, Director of Center for Marine Science Education (Sea Grant, SOEST)
