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Highlights
There is so much exciting research and activities taking place at VI-EPSCoR! Scroll down for our blog and read more. ↓
There is so much exciting research and activities taking place at VI-EPSCoR! Scroll down for our blog and read more. ↓
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In January, USVI teachers participated in a full-day, in-person professional development workshop titled: Exploring the Deep Ocean With NOAA.
The workshop explored how and why we explore the ocean and the tools and technologies that drive how we conduct expeditions into some of the most remote places on the planet.
Environmental education is more than academic; it's a vital pathway to conserving our natural world, showing individuals how to be stewards of the environment. This principle comes to life in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, through a high school mangrove education project called, Mangroves in the Classroom. Over the past year, 73 students at a local public high school have engaged hands-on with mangroves, nurturing an understanding that translates into tangible action and positive environmental change.
After many months spent building anticipation, UVI students and staff finally made their way to Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI), on February 24, 2023, for the second part of the mangrove exchange between the BVI and USVI.
Part 2 of 2
On April 22, 2022 GRROE USVI Mangroves from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Center for Marine & Environmental Studies, hosted an in-person mangrove restoration learning exchange with individuals from the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLCC), Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Part 1 of 2
70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans and, as the US Virgin Islands are mere specks in the northeastern Caribbean, we are directly impacted by its influence. Oceanography is the study of the Earth’s oceans and is central to understanding the mysteries of its vast yet largely uncharted depths. Learn more about the important Oceanographic research taking place in the VI EPSCoR Ridge to Reef Project.
The Marine Debris Action Plan (MDAP) team has been hosting annual Great Mangrove Cleanups since 2018 at sites across the US Virgin Islands. The most recent cleanup on St. Thomas took place on April 24th, 2021 along the National Park Road in Red Hook. The event was a success, bringing together 54 members of the community and resulted in the removal of 1,707 lbs of marine debris!
Our islands are vulnerable to marine debris. Marine debris affects our everyday life, from the awful sight of it on our beaches, to the economic toll that it can take on our tourism industry. In the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), approximately 90% of marine debris comes from land-based sources. It is up to us to prevent and reduce the amount of marine debris that ends up on our shorelines.
Seven students graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands Masters of Marine and Environmental Studies program this month despite significant challenges presented by COVID-19. These students are no strangers to adversity and in fact three of the graduates are part of what are lovingly call the “Hurricohort”, those who began their program just before hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Theirs was not an easy journey. Success was not guaranteed…it was won by doing the next hard thing each day. So join us as we celebrate them, these seven, who deserve to take a bow and relish what they have achieved.
Congresswoman Plaskett hosts a Distance Learning Webinar and has reached out to a few of the USVI’s top educators to share their strategies and techniques for distance learning including our own Virgin Island-Institute Science Education Research and Practice (VI-ISERP) Mentor Teacher, Ms. Michealrose Ravalier! As the 2020 St. Thomas District Teacher of the Year, she will offer insights into using home materials in science learning to boost engagement and strategies for leveraging educational technology.
“You are looking at one of the most unique sea turtle habitats in the world because the Brewers Bay and Hawksbill Cove turtle habitat is dominated by an artificial reef. We need to understand what it is about this environment that is attracting and holding so many juvenile hawksbill and green sea turtles. The support of donors like the Baird family is huge and much-needed for us to continue this crucial research.” Dr. Paul Jobsis
Already stressed coral reefs in the USVI have suffered through another coral bleaching event, surpassed only by the catastrophic 2005 bleaching event.
Dr. Richard Nemeth and his team document both the slow recovery of Nassau grouper in the U.S. Virgin Islands and illegal trapping of this endangered species in the Marine Conservation District.