By Joni Miller | Projects Director
The OA SEaTIDe is our Ocean Academy Center for Social Enterprise, Technology, Innovation, Development and Education. Our high-school students have created amazing projects and initiatives this school year, and taken leaps and bounds in learning. And they have been winning national and international awards!
Social Enterprise
Students won first place in North America and the Caribbean for their business plan entry to the School Enterprise Challenge. 1250 schools from 83 countries participated. Ocean Academy's business idea is called Fish with Purpose. Students plan to rent rods to visitors and share their fishing knowledge about the island's best spots. Profits support student school fees,pocket money and the school scholarship fund. Other social enterprises at Ocean Academy are Kayak, Bike and Dinner with Purpose, as well as our culinary herb sales.
Technology
To celebrate Women's Month, Ocean Academy organized a Technology for Women and Girls workshop event. Participants learned about Coding, Graphic Design software, 3-D Sketch Up Architectual Design and even ROV underwater robotics. A group of students is now experimenting with building their own ROV, with the guidance of three girls in the competitive Atlantis ROV Team from Whidbey Island, USA who are mentoring Ocean Academy's group.
Last week, professors and students from Georgia State University returned to Ocean Academy with their drones and ArcGIS software technology,and our students contributed to the ongoing marine debris mapping project.
Innovation
Students are really excited about mobile apps. Earlier this year, they won "Most Innovation and Creative Project" in a national S.T.E.M. science fair, for creating a prototype of a mobile app that would track mangrove restoration planting projects. Last month, a team of students ages 13-17 won the Belize High School Innovation Challenge with their mobile app called "Hire Belize". The competition challenged students to come up with solutions to high youth unemployment. Hire Belize is moving from protoype to reality now, and contains youth profile pages with their skills or products for sale, so that potential employers or buyers can easily find and hire young people. Testimonials and a star-rating system will provide valuable feedback on each youth's job or product performance.
Development and Education
For Belize Reef Week, students who wrote winning essays on the theme "Belief in the Reef" won a trip to snorkel the Caye Caulker Reef.
Students learned a hands-on lesson, literally, about citizenship, by joining hands in solidarity with tour guides, tourists, community members and Village Council members as a human message about our desire to protect the Belizean Reef from potential contamination. The event was organized by Oceana in centres nationwide and called "Hands Across the Sand".
What next? Scholarship Awards Ceremony!
Graduation is on June 12th and the Scholarship Awards Ceremony is on June 13th. If you would like to contribute to the Ocean Academy Scholarship Fund, now is the perfect time! We are so proud of our students, and now, with your help we hope to help them finish off a great year with scholarships and financial assistance.
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