Students in Nanwalek and Port Graham had the chance to get their feet wet for science last week during the annual Sea Week celebration.
One of the main activities throughout the week was tide pooling to get hands-on experience with local marine species.
"I think it’s really fun finding all the critters," said Port Graham third-grader Bobby-Wu Smith, 9.
He especially enjoyed finding a sea cucumber.
“It was all mushy. It looked like a worm but bigger and fatter," he said.
One of his fellow students, fourth-grader Azmaria Estaban, 9, who goes by “MeeMee,” said her favorite part was peeking under rocks in search of the more elusive critters.
“Because there’s eels and weird slimy animals," she explained.
Devin Way is a fourth-grade teacher at the Port Graham school. This is her first year working with Sea Week, which she described as a culmination of a whole year of studying science.
“Well, being that it is directly out our back door, I think it’s important for them to understand their environment and have respect for their environment," she said. “It’s been a tradition in Port Graham since before we got here and they usually do it in the beginning of May to celebrate the springtime and celebrate everything that the ocean gives to the community, being that we’re a large fishing community.”
Students from Fireweed Academy in Homer made the trip across the bay to learn alongside their peers in the villages and a handful of researchers and artists went across to help, too.
“We were able to identify things from the different types of sea stars to the chitens, or the bidarki, that they would gather and eat, as well as snails that they gathered while we were there. They really knew exactly where the big octopus lived and that was really valuable for us to see and know that these schools that live right by the ocean are really connected to where they live," said Seth Spencer, the education program coordinator with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
The adults took the kids out to do beach walks, identifiy tide pool residents, do live and dead animal counts, and learn about edible plants and sea food.
"If we ask them, ‘What kind of plant is this?’ or ‘What kind of animal is this?’ they know right off the bat and they know the native language word for it and they’ll tell us that," said Leah Thon, the marine debris STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math, educator for Coastal Studies.
She said the learning wasn’t one-sided.
"It’s been really cool because the common names have been different from in Homer versus Port Graham and Nanwalek. They have different names for things, so, it’s been really interesting," she explained.
Way had the same experience when she first came to town. She thinks that’s a good thing, because it means what the kids are learning at home, at school, and through events like Sea Week, is sticking.
“They just whipped out all this information from their past Sea Weeks, the things that they’ve learned, or their past years’ experiences and they knew so much more than I was even ready for. So, I had to revamp the curriculum there and push it further because they really, especially my kiddos in Port Graham, they just know a lot about the ocean," said Way.
One of the ways the Sea Week coordinators hope to keep kids’ interest this year is through ongoing projects that extend past the event, like the drift cards they sent off into the sea.
They walked the tideline at high and low tide and set out little colored cards marking where the water was.
“The red ones are high tide and the yellow ones are low tide," said Bobby-Wu.
When the tide came in, the little cards floated out with the current.
"When someone picks one up, there’s a number and a contact on the back and they’re to call that number, which is our village store," said Way. "At the store, there’s a map up and the map will then pinpoint where the card was found so we can watch the currents of the ocean."
The students hope local boaters and fishermen will keep their eyes out for the cards in Kachemak Bay, Cook Inlet, and beyond. That way, kids like Bobby-Wu and MeeMee can keep learning about the sea, even though Sea Week is over until next year.