Puerto Rico for the workshop. 



Like Christopher Columbus and Richard Byrd, the 

 teachers discovered new worlds they'd never seen 

 before. All it took was a mask and a snorkel, a 

 microscope, a pair of sneakers and an endless supply 

 of curiosity. 



Betty Dean of McLanesville made her greatest dis- 

 covery out in the swampy waters of the mangroves. A 

 paint box of vibrant colors swam right before her eyes 

 as she hovered over the roots of the mangrove trees. 

 Sea anemones, featherdusters, thin-shelled clams, 

 algae and sponges created an underwater gallery of 

 fine art. But "the neatest thing was the fish," she 

 says. "When you first arrived, the fish would be 

 scared away, but if you just hung there, they'd almost 

 come up and kiss you." 



The gallery extended to the coral reefs, too. Purple 

 fan corals, yellow butterfish, orange brain corals, gold 

 starfish and the clear, blue Caribbean water invited 

 the educators to take the plunge and see the exhibits. 



The best display came on a moonless night, in a 

 warm Puerto Rican bay when millions of 

 dinoflagellates danced in the water. When disturbed, 

 these microscopic marine organisms set off a glowing 

 sparkle. Swimming in the glittering light of 

 Phosphorescent Bay was an experience many of the 

 teachers will never forget. 



"You could never, never have anybody explain to 

 you what you're going to see," says Lucrecia 



Photo by Sarah Friday 



Puerto Rico's flowering hibiscus 



Rousseaux of Charlotte. "There's such a big dif- 

 ference between seeing something in real life and look- 

 ing at it in a book or at a movie. I know how enthused 

 my kids are going to be when I tell them about it." 



Sharing experiences and sights not only enriched 

 the cultural aspect of the exchange, but also gave the 

 teachers something more than souvenirs to take back 

 to school. 



"We wanted the teachers to learn the details of one 

 ecosystem and, hopefully, to see similarities in 

 ecosystems close to home," says Spence. It didn't 

 matter whether home was on the other side of the 

 island or 1,500 miles north. "We were looking to focus 

 on those points which make teachers of both regions 

 work together." By exploring Puerto Rico's environ- 

 ment as a group, they found out how many of the 

 ecosystems were alike. Puerto Rico's turtle grass beds 

 resemble North Carolina's eel grass beds, for example. 

 And the mangroves are similar to the state's salt 

 marshes. 



"We can take back what we've learned and com- 

 pare the ecosystems," says Mary Kearns, a science 

 consultant from Greensboro. "The things we did here 

 were so varied. ... If a teacher looks hard, she can 

 find not an equivalent, but a substitute for the things 

 we saw." 



Dean didn't have to look very far to find something 

 else the two groups had in common. "We worry about 

 our salt marshes and the conservation of our coast. 

 The Puerto Ricans have to worry about their coast, 

 too," she says. "The bottom line is we're all one. We 

 all have concerns. What one of us does affects others." 



Take the rain forests, for example. They're disap- 

 pearing quickly. North Carolina doesn't have rain 

 forests, but teachers should tell their classes about 

 them and their conservation, says Kearns. "The 

 world's concerns are our concerns. It's alive for me." 



"I look at my class, my biology class, now from a 

 different point of view," says Maritza Febo of Rio 

 Piedras, Puerto Rico. "Why forget the sea? It sur- 

 rounds Puerto Rico and consititutes two-thirds of the 

 surface of our planet Earth." 



Febo and the other teachers are taking this new 

 perspective to class this fall, along with materials, 

 ideas and specimens they collected from the 

 workshop. The return on their investment for the 

 week's activities was even more than they imagined. 



"I had good attitudes," Febo says, "but now they 

 are more firm, more concrete — about teaching, mov- 

 ing my fellow teachers, moving my students in marine 

 sciences. I'm bringing material — written material, 

 visual material. I'm bringing collections — shells, a 

 small algae collection and a small marine inver- 

 tebrates selection." 



The workshop helped Eva Corchado of Isabela, 

 Puerto Rico, too. "My attitudes towards marine 

 education have changed, therefore I will make sure 

 that my students develop good attitudes, too. Among 



