News

Walter Douglas Elementary School – Ocean Presentation

September 11th, 2009

Sept. 11th, 2009 – 12:30 to 1:30pm
Walter Douglas Elementary School (Flowing Wells District), Tucson, Az.
1st Grade, 50-60 students
Ocean Overview with Powerpoint/mixed media

Showing the Fin Whale rib bone to the kids!

Afternoon presentation with a combined class of 1st graders! Very energetic and fun! We had volunteer Michael Schrantz helping out today. The kids had loads of great Questions (some new ones that have NEVER been asked before) that showed some of the great insight children can have when looking at our amazing oceans! There are BOUND to be some future marine biologists in the group! We will be back at Walter Douglas Elementary on Wednesday! The Flowing Wells School District has really stepped up and started using the Fin Foundation in its schools! We love it!

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Kyrene Del Norte – Ocean Overview

September 10th, 2009

Sept 10th, 2009 1:00pm-2:00pm
Kyrene Del Norte Elementary School, Tempe, Az
3rd grade, 50+ students
Ocean Overview

Student with seastar

Had a great time with this class! Lots of characters! The students really knew their science though and had great questions and were really involved in the presentation! Their eyes all lit up when the Seashellswere shown and they screamed when the shark jaws were passed around! We talked a lot about recycling and how they can help to save sea turtles! So much fun! Looking forward to coming back and working not only with this class again but also working with additional classes and grades!

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Grace Community Christian School – Ocean Presentation

September 10th, 2009

Sept. 10, 2009 – 10:00am -11:00am
Grace Community Christian School, Tempe, Az.
3rd grade, 30 students
Ocean overview with sharks and scuba

Giant Fin Whale rib bone used during the Ocean presentation

A wonderful presentation at the Grace Community Christian School this morning! Lots of enthusiasm for the ocean and sharks! The teachers had really done a great job getting the kids excited about the ocean by having them work on ocean poetry and other activities as part of their regular curriculum! I loved seeing several of the kids so taken by the wonders of the sea that they were saying they were going to be marine biologists when they grew up! And they were all girls! We need more girls involved in science! I hope they stick with it! Great questions and stories!

The principal showed up and stayed for a majority of the presentation! I always enjoy seeing the administration getting involved with the classes! I look forward to getting a chance for the Fin Foundation to come back to this school for future presentation!

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Amazing Marine Life Photos… at FinFoundationImages.com

September 7th, 2009

the Dance

The Fin Foundation has a new sister website!

www.FinFoundationImages.com

Steve Williams called out to his friends in the underwater photography community and they have responded BIG TIME! The site donates all of the profits to the Fin Foundation! The photos are amazing AND inexpensive so drop by and pick out an image! Use them for postcards, display them in your home or office… and know that you are supporting marine science and ocean conservation in the Southwest!

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Amazing Photo Donation!

September 1st, 2009

amazing view at a developing shark!

The Sea Button!

The Fin Foundation has received an amazing donation of over 3000 marine photos from noted marine biologist, artist, author, science teacher and photographer Alex Kerstitch! Alex worked in all around the world exploring the underwater realm (and lots of surface stuff too!) but always returned to the Sea of Cortez! His work has been published

Alex in the field... with Humboldt Squid!

in numerous biology texts books, creature identification books, as well as his own book “Sea of Cortez Marine Invertebrates”. Alex passed away several years ago and his collection was given to Dr. D. A. Thomson to use in furthering marine science. Dr. Thomson, an honorary Board Member of The Fin Foundation has worked at sharing these photos and has allowed the Sonoran Desert Museum full access along with The Fin Foundation! The photos are amazing! Alex did a great job of getting shots no one else could manage! His work on showing developing sharks INSIDE the maiden’s purse is ground breaking! And there are photos of snails hunting fish that will amaze everyone!!

The underbelly of a manta!

It was wonderful to have spent some time in the field with Alex, getting to see how his work was accomplished! He also worked with a lot of other well known underwater photographers, such as Howard Hall and Marty Sniderman. If you get the chance to read “The Beast” by Peter Benchly, you will see a section about a true incident in the Sea of Cortez involving Alex and some Humboldt Squid!

It will take some time to add these photos to the Fin Foundation collection but it will happen bit by bit! Look for them in the gallery soon!

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