At the start of the spread of the pandemic, we were unsure how COVID-19 would affect our business. We quickly realized how important schools are to the work we do. Without the fortunate opportunities to go into classrooms and teach students about marine and environmental science, we couldn't operate to full capacity.
That being said, we found new and innovative ways to connect with our local students, parents, and teachers. One way is by offering free lessons and activities. We completely changed our Sample Lesson Plans page to offer many more options to teachers who were now teaching in a new way: with distance learning. We now offer a sample lesson, per grade group, from each unit of our books, that still remain on sale on Amazon. You can find those lessons here: www.teachmarinecsi.com/sample-lesson-plans
We also developed a brand new page for kids. From our workbooks, also available for purchase on Amazon, we took some of our coolest activities and added them to a page especially for kids. These include coloring pages, word finds, crossword puzzles, and mazes. We also added a button which leads you to our contact page, so if kids would like to ask us a question, they can! You can find those all here: www.teachmarinecsi.com/kids-page
From there, we got super creative with our time. What better way to bring all of this innovation together than be creating a series of books for kids! Currently available on our Kids Page, you can now download our full coloring and activity book! This will be in print form and will eventually be available at festivals and events, when they resume (hopefully this fall).
As part of this new Explore Your Watershed series, we are developing an adventure guide and nature journal to go with the coloring and activity book. The adventure guide will feature different ecosystems along our coasts that kids can explore, with activities built right in. We'll be asking kids to really use all five of their senses to get to know each ecosystem. Be on the lookout for more information on our Facebook page.
We know that this is a trying time for everyone, and we express our deepest gratitude to teachers, parents, students, our healthcare workers, and frontline people who are struggling every day to maintain some sense of normalcy during this pandemic. We will see our students soon, hopefully in the next school year, if not over the summer in camp or library settings. We will continue to assist parents and teachers in bringing the best quality science education resources to their students so that our natural ecosystems have the best conservationists of the future.
