H2O cooperator Richard Boehm, Ph.D., Director of the Grosvenor Center, often talks of the educational value of video and other instruction focused on teaching teachers. One of the best ways to use video in instruction, according to Dr. Boehm, is to have superstar teachers appearing in the videos, along with real classes conducting real activities.

“Teachers relate to teachers teaching students,” said Boehm. That’s why we feature exceptional teachers who already excel at teaching the subject matter of our videos. We work with them to develop new curricula and integrate the new material and teaching techniques to feature student activities.. These star teachers take their real-life class through the activity.

The search for star teachers is now on for the soon-to-be-filmed bays and estuaries unit featuring the oyster reef as the central environmental character. Keying on the bays and estuaries near Corpus Christi, several teachers already are well known for excellence in teaching about water quality and marine subject matter to middle and high school students.

For this project, teachers will conduct field trips to an oyster reef, sample water quality at the reef, and conduct experiments where students can watch how oysters filter particulates from water.

“By teaching teachers how to teach water related subjects, the depth of possible instruction increases by several orders of magnitude over the more traditional route of face-to-face professional development. Each teacher instructs dozens of students each year and teachers can adapt materials to best suit their student’s needs,” said Dr. Boehm.