Our first meeting was with Bruce Harlan, a teacher at St Matthew’s School in Pacific Palisades. Bruce had kindly invited us to a BBQ on the evening we flew in. We had a wonderful time discussing Bruce’s DEEP program, sharing marine teaching ideas and experiences and meeting his charming family.
Next morning we started out with a visit to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, a relatively small Marine Discovery Centre style facility now run by an organization called Heal the Bay. Visit the Heal the Bay web site (URL below) to find out more about their work in the Los Angeles area. |
The wet teaching lab at Cabrillo Aquarium
(a new one is almost finished) |
Simone and Steve Vogel
watching grunion eggs hatch. |
Later that day we drove down to Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific and meet Annie Maben, a friend who teaches at Freemont High School. We stayed with Annie for the next two nights and again had a great time sharing marine teaching ideas and experiences. Even though we are at the start of our adventure, staying at the home of a good friend like Annie is such a welcome change from motel accommodation.
Following a relatively relaxed start to our third day in LA, we met Steve Vogel, Education Curator at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Cabrillo is a well established ‘older style’ aquarium with a wide range of innovative marine education programs. Our visit and the time spent with Steve was really productive and we had the extra bonus of being there at the time of the famous grunion runs.
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