Jennifer Lorella & Katie Lee Revive NKSD Elementary School’s Salmon Seekers Program
One of our largest grants for the 2023-2024 school year goes to Jennifer Lorella and Katie Lee for their ambitious revival of the Salmon Seekers program.
Special aquariums set up at each of the elementary schools throughout the district will provide a fantastic learning opportunity for kids to care for young salmon and learn important lessons about the environment.
In the initial stage, through cooperation with Kitsap County and our local hatcheries, the tanks will receive eggs. The children learn about environmental impacts on the infant salmon as they hatch and develop. Later, the salmon are released into local waters where students are able to see, first hand, the challenges the young salmon will experience as they grow to adulthood and repopulate our waters.
The program covers education under a broad range of topics in the areas of:
Environmental Science
Mathematics
Reading
In additional cooperation with the S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes, the kids also learn the importance of salmon as a deep cultural symbol of our native communities as part of the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State program.
Through multiple means of representation, all students whether part of the dual language program, multi-language learners, special education students, or other students from diverse backgrounds are provided with this opportunity to understand culture and the environment as well as the cooperation required to maintain a healthy ecosystem.
This enormous undertaking will require time to finish setting up throughout the district, including refurbishing and building the salmon tanks at each school and training teachers and staff. NKSF is proud to recognize the efforts of these two dedicated teachers in rebuilding this wonderful collaborative project with the Glen Robbins Innovation in Education Award for the 2023-2024 school year.
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