While the pandemic is still ongoing, it has not put a damper on Reef-World and Reef Check Dominican Republic’s joint project with TUI Care Foundation, the Youth Ambassador Coral Reef Conservation Programme in the Dominican Republic. The project’s leading implementing partner, Reef Check DR, continues to power through online classes and outdoor activities delivering the curriculum we developed together. Certainly, it has not been without challenges as schools are still closed nationwide, but Reef Check DR managed to bring four new private schools on board: CEMEP School, American School of Santo Domingo, New Horizons Bilingual School, and CONEXUS School.
Jorge Diaz from Reef Check DR said although he “prefers physical classes for more interaction, he is still glad that he gets to reach out to the students and conduct lectures considering the restricted situation they are in”. Luckily for him, he was already familiar with the platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and the school teachers were around to assist as well should he need any help.
They divided the original lesson content into two lectures, each containing three of the six modules. Students covered topics such as: Meet the Sea, Explore Coral Reefs, Fantastic Fish Discover Mangroves, Submerge into Seagrass and Trouble Beneath the Waves. The students who participated were from 7th to 11th grade, and the groups varied in size from 14 to 55 participants.
Each lecture was around an hour and a half, allowing enough time to deliver the lecture, play a Kahoot! (a game-based learning platform) and answer any questions the students may have. Kahoot! was really popular among the students. After being oversaturated with online learning over the last year, it was a great tool to get the students engaged in the lectures.
A word of advice from Jorge if you want to get more interaction in your online classes “for very theoretical courses, consider adding more videos, either your own or from external sources". He shared a video showing how mangroves can diminish the impact of waves on the shoreline; the students loved it!
In addition to online classes, Reef Check DR managed to organise field trips in Boca Chica with the assistance of Fundación Verde Profundo. A much-needed change of learning environment for the students. The field trips aimed to apply what the students have learnt in their online classes and implement that knowledge by participating actively in conservation activities.
Students cleaning underwater dome
The trip started with an introduction to what Fundación Verde Profundo does and the activities and projects the foundation is involved in. After that, the students were given a tour through the micro-sanctuaries and a workshop on coral planting and dome cleaning. Under the supervision of Jorge and Christian (who are rescue divers), the students got a chance to get in the water to get hands-on experience planting corals onto underwater domes. The experience would not be complete without having them do some cleaning of the corals and underwater domes too.
During the time of the field trips, only a small number of the Dominican Republic population have been vaccinated for Covid-19. With the sudden rise of Covid-19 cases, the organisers opted to transport the students via “carpooling”. Each student was transported with their parents or legal representative. They experimented with the number of participants (less than 15) to see what is the best way to achieve these activities in the current pandemic situation. Being flexible but determined has been key for Reef Check DR to continue the momentum of this project.
All in all, everyone had a great time and learnt a lot from the two-day field trip. The students learnt more about local conservation efforts, and the Reef Check DR team learnt how to adapt new approaches to the programme in a global pandemic. The next steps of the project include training of trainers; Reef Check DR will train 10 teachers to deliver the Youth Ambassador Programme curriculum, ensuring future generations in the Dominican Republic have access to the knowledge and motivation needed to protect their reefs.
As with many other projects, the pandemic has created a lot more hurdles on the way to achieving our conservation goals but Reef Check DR staff have remained optimistic and determined. They will continue to work towards a brighter and more secure future for the country’s youth by protecting the reefs - pandemic or not.