zschwartz2006.htm

Zachary Schwartz has been a salt water aquarium enthusiast since he was 12. Since 2000, he has been a member of the Puget Sound Aquarium Society. He is the owner of CoralForum.com and is active in supporting the use of ecologically safe aqua culture products such as liverock, live sand, tank-raised corals and fish.

Education is a key issue for Zack. Last year, he established a salt water aquarium at Bellevue High School in Bellevue Washington. This aquarium is the focus of programs in a variety of different classes. It has also become a unique piece of art work admired by students, faculty, administrators and visitors to Bellevue High School. Zack hopes this undertaking will become a model for a much larger and more extensive education program.

"K-12 Education and the Science Behind It"

This talk will focus on my experiences developing an aquarium-based education program at Bellevue High School. I will include information on setting up and maintaining an aquarium in a high school environment, and provide examples on how the aquarium is being used for teaching. I will also discuss ideas on expanding the program into other schools. My goal for this presentation is to encourage fellow hobbyists to get involved in their local schools.

I want to show that volunteering just a small amount of time can yield huge rewards in terms of expanding interest in our field, by educating students and getting them excited about marine biology and conservation. Developing an aquarium in your local school can teach students and teachers alike, many of whom will never visit a natural reef, a chance to see how reef ecosystems work. We can build a citizenship that will work for preserving natural reefs for generations to come.