On November 25th and 26th, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) and the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment (DOE) will offer a pair of free, teacher workshops in Grand Cayman and then Cayman Brac that will focus on the Grouper Education Program, a marine sciences curriculum for students Years 4-12. This program serves as the educational component to the ongoing conservation effort known as the Grouper Moon Project. During this free workshop, teachers will gain the resources and training necessary to successfully implement the Grouper Education Program in their classrooms. This exciting project literally brings the Nassau Grouper into elementary, middle, and high school classrooms through lesson plans and interactive, live-feed video sessions. During these sessions students will be able
to interact with researchers and scientists, in real time, as they work on the spawning aggregation site located off Little Cayman.

This hands-on curriculum presents a multi-faceted view of the Nassau Grouper, in which students create their own understanding of this iconic Caribbean predator. Key curricular concepts include the historical role of the species as an traditional fishery throughout the Caribbean region, the grouper’s value as a keystone predator and its impact on local reef health, its role in today’s tourism-based economy in the Cayman Islands, and the conservation challenges facing Nassau Grouper given steep declines in populations. In addition to classroom lessons, the program includes live-feed video sessions between classes and scientists at the research site on Little Cayman, allowing us to bring real-world field science into the classroom. These video discussions are supplemented with footage of solitary Nassau Grouper on their home reef, and the 4,000+ mass aggregation of Nassau Grouper that gather on the west end of Little
Cayman during winter full moons. While the bulk of the lessons take place over the course of the two weeks in January and February, when REEF scientists and DOE staff are working at the spawning site, we have developed a set of pre-activities to help build background knowledge as well as follow-up lessons to help deepen the students’ learning.

The curriculum was developed to complement and share the research and scientific efforts of the Grouper Moon Project (www.REEF.org/groupermoonproject). Grouper Moon educator, Todd Bohannon, along with Grouper Moon scientists Brice Semmens, Ph.D. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Christy Pattengill- Semmens, Ph.D. (REEF), and Mr. Bradley Johnson (DOE), have led the educational effort. Activities were developed in consultation with teachers Verity Redrup and Brenda Bryce from Cayman Prep & High School on Grand Cayman, , and Cynthia Shaw, author of the youth fictional book, Grouper Moon.

During these afternoon, hands-on workshops, educators will learn the following:

• How to effectively implement the Grouper Education Program in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.
• Working knowledge of the key historical, scientific, and conservation concepts about Nassau
Grouper.
• Technical training will allow teachers to easily access our educational blog (www.groupereducation.edublogs.org), the video-conferencing website, digital video cameras, and more.
• Educators will also receive access to program materials and technical support.

Our first workshop in 2013 was highly successful and attended by nearly 20 educators, representing over
15 schools from Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and the Bahamas. We are extremely excited to be back with a second round of workshops, to be working with new and returning teachers alike, and thrilled to be bringing three teachers from Turks & Caicos to participate in the project. We look forward having the

opportunity to share our work with educational institutions throughout the Caribbean. The Grouper Education Program is a component of the Grouper Moon Project and is supported by a grant from the Disney Conservation Fund. If you are interested in finding out more about either of these workshops, please contact our Education Coordinator, Todd Bohannon at [email protected].

Bradley Johnson, Cayman Islands Dept. of Environment

Christy Pattengill-Semmens, Ph.D., REEF Director of Science

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