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Puget Sound used as classroom

Schools: Nonprofit takes students for a ride they won't forget

VENICE BUHAIN; The Olympian | • Published October 26, 2009

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OLYMPIA - A little thing like plankton was part of a new world for some Komachin Middle School eighth-graders.

Jessie Santillan, Kris Girton and Daniel Cook, all part of the school’s honors oceanography program, fished some microscopic plankton out of Puget Sound while they and classmates were aboard the Indigo, a former fishing vessel that now is dedicated to being a water-bound classroom.

“I can’t believe there are huge animals that eat those and only those,” Kris said after looking at plankton.

Jessie said he had been looking forward to the trip “because you can understand what you’re doing in the class and see how it would be in real life,” he said.

Other classmates explored the rest of the Indigo, learning about navigation with captain Chris Burt and creating art and learning about seamanship on other parts of the vessel.

The Indigo, a program of the nonprofit Service Education Adventure, navigated South Puget Sound last week with students from the honors oceanography classes of Komachin and Nisqually middle schools in Lacey.

The weeklong program, funded through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, included training for North Thurston district teachers to integrate life on Puget Sound with many classroom subjects, including science, art, reading, writing and math, said Susie Richards, a crew member of the Indigo. She and Burt also have been classroom teachers.

Every day last week, the Indigo took a small group of the honors oceanography students for a busy day on the water. Komachin science teachers Raven Skydancer and Tom Condon arranged for a stop to see Taylor Shellfish Farms and clean weeds at Hope Island with a park ranger, said North Thurston district science instructional coach Dixie Reimer.

“A big aim is just to get the kids to know what home is here,” Reimer said. Many of the students have never been on Puget Sound, she said.

The honors oceanography students also will take what they learn on the Indigo and in other class projects to give presentations to other classes, Komachin science teacher Jenna Glock said.

Richards said one of the program’s goals is to show students how what they learn in the classroom applies to Puget Sound.

“Especially in middle school, the question is, ‘What does this have to do with me? When am I going to use this?’” Richards said.