Abstract Summary
Heirs To Our Oceans is not just a global movement empowering youth to protect their oceans and waters for their generation, it is a representative of how the education system must change to prepare our kids as they will inherit the problems our oceans face including the coral crisis. 14 year old Charley Peebler, a Founding Heir who focuses on coral outside of brick-and-mortar schools, learning from experts in the field, and speaking publicly nationally and internationally on the subject, both the problems and solutions, will share about how she learns is most effective in creating change for the next generation. Accompanying Charley will be a teen from the Republic of Palau who will share his story in facing the problems corals face and how as an islander the schools have removed him from his waters, the vast ocean laboratory that is not accessible to him in his learning. The challenge is no different in the middle of Kansas as it is in the islands of our oceans -- our youth have been extracted from their waters and oceans due to our education system that is not preparing the next generation to adequately process solutions for ocean challenges. Heirs To Our Oceans is working toward a prototype school where youth partner with coral restoration aquarist such that the kids are not only learning about the real world problems their oceans face but are also learning through an interdisciplinary curriculum in which they are actively attempting to solve the issue.
