Imagine walking into a room where everyone is interested in what you have to say, and you in turn are thoroughly engaged in whatever everyone else has to say. It’s a weird feeling, that you belong somewhere, and everyone can provide something wonderful to add to your career.
This was my first ever National Marine Educators Conference, and I am so happy with how the experience turned out. Being in a room of people who are all interested in the same things as you and find what you’re doing to be interesting and engaging is a wonderful feeling.
I have attended a few conferences before, and presented at some of them, so this isn’t my first rodeo, but I can certainly say this was without a doubt my favorite of them all. I want to thank The Southern Association of Marine Educators for their generous support and sponsorship of my registration for the 2023 National Marine Educators Conference. Their support helped me make my way over to quite literally the other side of the country to present, network, make friends, and see so many wonderful things over in the Pacific Northwest.
From the get-go, I do want to give a shout out to our fearless leader and SAME president, Sandra Bilbo, for messaging me practically minutes after I landed in Bellingham, WA. to see if I wanted to meet up and grab a bite to eat. Of course, I did, we met at a local pizza joint just a couple minutes from the dorms where I was staying. Because of that lunch, I felt so comfortable being in a brand-new place knowing I had someone that was going to have my back and support me throughout my experience.
Now, you may have noticed I said dorm. The conference was held at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Since I was presenting, I was able to stay in the dorms on campus, which at first seemed a bit iffy as they weren’t going to have AC, for a Florida girl like me I was terrified to not have AC. After having lunch with Sandra, I headed back up to the dorm and called my husband. As I was chatting away about the flight and lunch with him, I was watching out my open window and saw a family of deer right outside my window! Being situated right next to the mountain side, every night I fell asleep to the sounds of the mountains and the creatures living in it. It was truly magical! I fell asleep quick with the window open and slept through the night excited to get started with the conference in the morning.
I must say, it’s weird being someone who publicly speaks for a career but still gets nervous about speaking in front of peers. This conference was the first time I was presenting in a room of people who would be looking at my own research, and it was nerve wracking. My room was packed with upwards of 25 people (which doesn’t sound like a lot but was overflowing for the room I was in) and Sandra in the doorway smiling at me and taking snapshots of me speaking, while my long-time mentor Charlene Mauro from the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station cheers me on from the back of the room. I loved getting to speak on my sense of place research to people who would enjoy the study. And find something to take from it back to their own classroom. Many attendees to my session were interested to complete this research in their own classrooms as well. You can take a look at my presentation and the one pager that goes with it here: https://sharkyshenanigans.com/aquarium-in-the-classroom/
NMEA boasts many wonderfully diverse and interesting sessions that got me excited to get back into the classroom and figure out how to apply these new tools to my marine science classes. One example of these sessions is NOAA’s MAPPing out Marine Debris session, depicting a tool teachers can use to contribute to the data collection and removal of marine debris in their area. Many of the NOAA sessions were so helpful in realizing the tools that are out there available to teachers for use in the classroom. I plan on using this tool to take my club members out to a local beach and show then that they too can be a part of scientific research at a national level!
The other amazing and totally unique thing that NMEA provides for its attendees was the outings and dinners, especially the amazing traditional salmon feast with the Lummi Nation. I must say it’s truly incredible to be invited onto native land and get to eat and be truly happy with peers and new friends. I ate with some of the amazing people I met that day and made some new friends as well that were so interested in the work I was doing and gave many ways for us to collaborate. On Tuesday we had our auction dinner themed after the best period of time in our recent history: grunge! We got to rock out and be merry with our colleagues and come Wednesday we were sad to say goodbye.
NMEA provided many opportunities for its participants on what they lovingly call “field trip day”. From kayak paddles and hiking trips to boat tours we had many amazing events to choose from. I chose the coastal ethnobotany tour that gave me a wonderful in depth look at a the local Chuckanut Pocket Estuary and some of the wonderful plants around the Pacific Northwest.
The Pacific Northwest is truly a magical wonderland full of luscious mountains, beautiful bays, and lively tide pools! I got to experience some of these amazing habitats during my free time and truly fell in love with everything Bellingham had to offer. My first day in Bellingham I spent the day out on a whale watching boat where I got to see sea lions and harbor seals lounging on small islands and on buoys and even a couple small pods of transient orcas travelling through Bellingham Bay. I spent one evening exploring the tide pools at Larabee State Park where I got to see chitons, limpets, and even an adorable cubozoa jelly! The next morning, we visited the marine park in Fairhaven and spotted several adorable purple sea stars and Dungeness crabs. The variety and beauty of the bays and estuaries here gave me such joy and inspiration for future lessons and ideas I could use in my own classes.
Overall, I am in awe at NMEA’s ability to get everyone involved and inspired all in just a few days. They picked a fantastic location too, giving everyone a chance to experience new places and habitats. I made wonderful friends near me that I had to go across the country to find, I even found connections that will help me grow as a marine science educator, and on top of that I found a new favorite place in the country! NMEA 2023 has truly been an event to remember and I absolutely can’t wait to get to the 2024 conference in Boston!
