Message #123
1) Reef Ball Development Group, The Reef Ball Foundation, Reef
Innovations, and The Reef Ball Coalition have formed an understanding with
The Living Classroom Foundation to jointly develop and explore
-Reef Ball educational science kits, (for students and teachers at
multiple levels)
-Reef Ball classroom curriculums,
-Academic and National Science Standards Accreditation,
-Local school based Reef Ball projects,
-A hands-ons Reef Ball learning facility, and
-An exciting Reef Ball building and deploying ecolearning destinations
(initially Caribbean based).
Longer term goals may include expansion of this program to coastal
countries worldwide. The expected wide scale adoption of the Reef Ball
programs will allow the coordination of data collection and analysis
during classroom experiences. Focuses may include providing scientists
with additional high quality data for real studies. Perhaps more
importantly, students will endeavor to help Reef managers to answer
practical questions quick using limited power experimental techniques. A
possible benefit is that faster preliminary results could guide important
fast paced policy decisions while awaiting full scientific reports.
The Reef Ball Foundation and The Living Classroom Foundation are 501(c) 3
non-profit charitable organizations and they will seek to unite public and
private funding sources to accomplish these goals in a highly efficient
and expedient fashion.
Reef Ball Development Group got this e-mail today we wanted to share with
folks on this list. This simple letter sums up why the above
organizations are committing such significant efforts to reach these goals…
“Hello ! I am junior at SAHS and a member of the Sea Explorer program with
Phil Stewman . This year our Oceanography class's focus has been Reef
Ball. In May of 99 our class began the steps for this project. Scuba
certification, pool sessions, spring dives and open water dives were what
our summer was about. Mr. Stewman has dedicated his life to this project
and his students. He has been working on this for about 10 years and now
that Reef Ball has come to St. Augustine and allowed the students to
participate it's all falling into place for him. Out of the 60 hard
working students Mr. Stewman teaches in the Oceanography program he choose
4 students to drop the first Reef Balls off of St. Augustine; Callie Simon
(11th), David Austin (12th) ; Tim Haire (12th) and; me, Brittney Crosby
(11th). I just wanted to thank Reef Ball on be half of Mr..Stewman and all
of the students in the program for this awesome learning experience that
not only will we remember for the rest of our lives but we will be able to
enjoy the experience. Thanks Reef Ball.“
Brittney Crosby
St. Augustine High School.
Note: Schools around the nation have already participated in Reef Ball
programs winning national environmental awards and helping restore local
aquatic habitats with Reef Balls. Noted projects include Spanish River
High School in Boca Raton, Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Dixie County
High School in Cross City, Mandarin High School in Jacksonville,
Pequenakonck Elementary School in New York, Ridgeview Middle School in
Atlanta, Macintosh Middle School in Sarasota, and many others from the
Keys to Canada..
2) The Charlotte Harbor Reef Association’s Reef Ball development has been
delayed due to a mechanical breakdown on the barge. Deployment will be
rescheduled when the part arrives to fix the problem.
3) 40 Bay Balls were deployed in Sarasota bay over the weekend by Mote
Marine.
Reports from the Atlantic and Gulf States Fishery Commission meetings and
Reef Ball monitoring last form last week in the next update.
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