Alaska communities celebrate Alaska Seas and Rivers Week

June 15, 2015

Photo by Deborah Mercy. Marilyn Sigman, Alaska Sea Grant marine educator, explains the Chester Creek watershed to an Anchorage student.

In Anchorage, on a cool early spring day in late April, 200 fourth- and fifth-graders rode school buses to Westchester Lagoon to learn about the Chester Creek watershed. The field trip was part of this year’s statewide Alaska Seas and Rivers Week program.

Students tested water quality and captured insects, which they learned are aquatic macroinvertebrates. They confirmed the watershed is still healthy enough to support the salmon runs that pass their schools and swim all the way through Alaska’s largest city between the mountains and Cook Inlet.

“The annual program of field trips and teaching about local watersheds and the ocean was bigger and better for many schools this year,” said Marilyn Sigman, Alaska Sea Grant marine education specialist.

Alaska Sea Week began in 1968 with a grassroots effort by parents in Juneau to celebrate the ocean’s bounty. The concept spread across the state and inland during the 1970s. In the 1980s, Alaska Sea Grant produced the six-volume Alaska Sea/River Week curriculum to provide resources for teaching about Alaska’s watersheds and the ocean. The activities emphasized getting kids outdoors on field trips and encouraging community involvement. A Sea or River Week celebration became an annual event for many communities.

In 2009, Sigman and other educators updated the curriculum and published it online as Alaska Seas and Rivers. “It’s still the only K–8 curriculum focused on Alaska watersheds and marine environments,” said Sigman. “It’s cross-disciplinary and it encourages kids to feel, see and touch their local environment.”

This year, Sigman provided professional development workshops and support for integrating Alaska Seas and Rivers activities into school district curriculum frameworks for Anchorage, Dillingham and Yakutat.

Alaska Sea Grant provided $10,000 grants to the three school districts. The funds also bolstered partnerships between schools, community partners and local experts. In Dillingham, financial support came from Icicle Seafoods and the Alaska Natural Resource and Outdoor Education Association. In Anchorage, Alaska Sea Grant became a business partner to the district’s STEM Department and teamed up with Alaska Geographic and the Anchorage Waterways Council to provide field trips.

After a hiatus of 15 years, Alaska Sea Week was again celebrated in Dillingham with 260 elementary students. Students lined the school hallways with illustrations of marine creatures, salmon life cycles and the water cycle. At Kanakanak Beach, they learned about the importance of salmon migration to the community. They also captured and observed the most prolific invertebrate, a giant freshwater isopod. “I think the highlight for my class was finding several isopods at the mouth of the creek,” said teacher Heidi Hink. “One hatched her babies in the jar!”

In Yakutat, new classroom and field trip activities bolstered the Sea Week tradition. Older students learned about conditions needed for an oyster farm and visited a fish weir. Younger students used sampling quadrats to tally the different types of marine invertebrates on rocky Ankau Beach and then returned to the classroom to make graphs.

Photo by Paula Cullenberg. Unalaska students explore their waterfront.

In future years, Alaska Sea Grant will provide grants and professional development to other school districts such as the Unalaska City School District. This year, Melissa Good, Marine Advisory agent in Unalaska, coordinated what has become the annual local Dockside Discovery Day. “Wow, I’ve never held a live crab in my hand,” said one first-grader. Unalaska has formally adopted Alaska Seas and Rivers into the school’s annual curriculum.

“Learning about and celebrating the local marine and river environment is one way to increase the understanding and care for our local habitats,” said Paula Cullenberg, Alaska Sea Grant director. “Healthy ecosystems in Alaska are critical to healthy communities. Sea Week or River Week is a proven and fun way to engage kids in science, art and literature all around their local resources.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Marilyn Sigman, 907-274-9612, msigman@alaska.edu