Shark Centre educators will attend CEI/Island School to expand education programme

The Island School was founded in 1999 by Chris and Pam Maxey with support from The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Chris Maxey taught at the school and in 1996, he received the Joukowsky Fellowship allowing him to work towards his Masters in Marine Resource Management at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. He initiated the Cape Eleuthera Marine Conservation Project (now the Cape Eleuthera Foundation) and began to set the framework to build a school and research station at Cape Eleuthera in The Bahamas. The project received a donation of 18 acres of land gifted from the Cape Eleuthera Resort & Yacht Club.

Curriculum design is grounded in education research and progressive approaches to teaching and learning. Pedagogy at The Island School is characterized by models which include place-based, experiential, project-based, inter-disciplinary and cooperative learning philosophies. The school seeks to make all learning authentic and relevant to real-world issues.

On the Maxey’s recent trip to South Africa, Chris Maxey had the opportunity to visit the Save our Seas Shark Research Centre and met with Michael C. Scholl, CEO of Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF). Michael is interested in expanding the educational outreach program at the Shark Centre and is sending two educators to join The Island School Teacher Conference this summer to help enhance the experiential elements of the new curriculum. Dr. Edd Brooks has been working with SOSF and the Shark Centre since 2006 and Chris Maxey’s son Brocq started working as an intern at the Shark Centre when he moved to Cape Town in 2009. Other Island School students have also participated in the research internship program.

There will be internship opportunities available both at the Shark Centre and also through an expeditionary organization, Shark Explorer, where Brocq Maxey currently works as a dive master and underwater photographer.

http://blog.ceibahamas.org/2013/03/21/ceiisland-school-bridge-to-shark-research-in-south-africa/