Audio Transcript

[00:00:00]
Jaclyn Gerakios: We have a group that is working on a nurdle STEM design because that was one thing that we did when we were in St Kilda with the Port Phillip EcoCentre. We went down to the beach and did a quadrat sectioning of the beach and found so many microplastics and nurdles. So a group of our fellows were really into that, and so they decided they wanted to create a STEM design challenge for students to think about how they can come up with a device or a machine that can help us clean up those nurdles.

[00:00:32]
Jaclyn Gerakios: We have another group that is working on a reclaimed playground, so the concept is students could essentially engineer their own playground out of recycled materials. We have another group working on alternatives to plastic packaging. They are all working really hard and they’re doing a great job for us and we’re really thankful for them.

[00:00:53]
Announcer: You’re listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. For hundreds of ideas, free experiments and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. And now, here’s your host, Ben Newsome.

[00:01:10]
Ben Newsome: Yes, welcome again to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. It’s a big week this week because we get to speak with Jaclyn Gerakios, who’s incredibly passionate about marine biology and the education of the environment to our kids. She’s been doing this for many, many years. She’s a past president of the Florida Marine Science Educators Association, and in the last few years, she’s been working with EarthEcho International, an incredibly vibrant non-profit organisation that’s all about getting kids, teachers, and anyone involved in our marine sciences and really about looking after our environment and creating a sustainable future. So let’s get on into this. Jaclyn’s got a lot to say about how they’ve been doing their expeditions with teachers. They recently had one down in Melbourne and how you might be able to get involved. So let’s listen on in. I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it.

[00:01:57]
Announcer: This is the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re all about science, ed tech and more. To see 100 fun free experiments you can do with your class, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S and click 100 free experiments.

[00:02:15]
Jaclyn Gerakios: So we just got back from Australia for our 2019 EarthEcho Expedition. I work for a non-profit called EarthEcho International, and our non-profit was founded by two siblings, Alexandra and Philippe Cousteau, who are the grandchildren of the legendary Jacques Cousteau. One of our four core programmes is the Expeditions programme. Every year, we take 25 middle grade teachers, so about years five through nine, on an expedition somewhere in the world, sometimes it’s their backyard, to look at a wicked environmental problem that’s happening. We plan a week of professional development with these teachers that we call fellows. We also bring a camera crew with us and record a series of videos that shares the story.

[00:02:50]
Jaclyn Gerakios: So this year in Melbourne, Australia, we were looking at plastics in the ocean. We spent the week talking to different people who worked in government, non-profits, different educators, scientists, about the issue, the impacts, and then what are the innovative solutions that are out there to help stop this plastic pollution in our ocean. Our fellows will work with me until about the end of this year, so the end of 2018, to develop STEM design challenges that will be available for free on our website when we do a launch of all of those resources in early 2019.

[00:03:36]
Ben Newsome: Wow, I can imagine being one of those teachers going on effectively an adventure. That is amazing. How do they actually stumble across EarthEcho and what they’ve done? Have they worked with you in the past with other programmes that EarthEcho does, or how do they find out how to go somewhere around the world to solve an environmental challenge?

[00:03:58]
Jaclyn Gerakios: That’s a great question. A lot of our fellows come from the area where we are visiting. So in 2017, we went to Southern California, around the Los Angeles area, so we had a lot of teachers from there. But teachers find EarthEcho through all of those free resources I was telling you about. We love to provide resources from all topics, whether it’s ocean acidification, freshwater, engineering, anything like that. We have that all available for free on our website, so we get a lot of traffic for teachers that are looking for free and innovative lessons that they can use.

[00:04:38]
Ben Newsome: One of the things that I really like about what you guys do is the STEM Explore virtual field trips, which just looking at the lineup with the speakers that you’ve got coming on up and in fact, as we talk now, you’ve got a marine biologist literally about to start talking from Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society. You’ve got quite a thing going on here.

[00:04:59]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yeah, so STEM Explore is super exciting. That’s actually our newest programme under our four core programmes in EarthEcho. The whole purpose is to get girls excited about careers in STEM. What my coworker Casey has done is set up that amazing lineup that you see on our website of virtual field trips with women that have STEM jobs. We hold these live virtual field trips. We also have after-school programmes and classrooms that are on live with us. The STEM mentor will tell their story, talk about their job, their path, where have they been, where do they think they’re going, and it’s very interactive. Not only the students on camera can ask questions, but anybody watching on our YouTube, which is another free event that we do, can chat in questions to us and we make sure that the STEM mentors answer those questions during their presentation. So it’s a really fun interactive exploration of what can I do if I’m interested in STEM.

[00:06:02]
Ben Newsome: So what got you into science in the first place? I’m always curious about this because people fall into STEM and science in all different ways. I’m just wondering for yourself, how did it all happen?

[00:06:14]
Jaclyn Gerakios: That’s a great question. My path is quite long, so I’ll do the short version. Basically, I’m from the States and I was born in the wrong state. I always tell my mother, I was born in Ohio, which is unfortunately mostly landlocked. We do have a lake, but no ocean, and from a young age, my mom took me to an aquarium. I just fell in love with everything that I saw. The fish, the sharks, the dolphins, everything was so intriguing and fascinating to me that I went back to my life and I just researched and I read every book I could. I checked every book out of the library and I did stumble across the Cousteaus, people like Dr Sylvia Earle, Dr Eugenie Clark, and those are the people that I looked up to.

[00:07:00]
Jaclyn Gerakios: So when I was in high school, I had the opportunity to do what’s called a mentorship, and I mentored a zookeeper at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. I got some experience as an aquarist and learned how to scuba dive and do all of those things. So I knew that was my passion and that’s what I wanted to do. Since I was in Ohio, I couldn’t afford to go out of state for university. So I went to Ohio University and I was lucky enough that they had a marine biology programme. I was able to get my undergraduate degree in marine biology, and from there, I worked at a field station in the Bahamas. I worked at a marine science camp in the Florida Keys. I worked at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.

[00:07:46]
Jaclyn Gerakios: And then I decided that I really wanted to get into education. I really loved talking to students and getting them just as passionate about the ocean as I am. So I went back and I got my master’s degree in environmental education and took that first step into the classroom, where I have taught anywhere from grades kindergarten, six years, six through 12, and ended my teaching career in the middle school, so years five and seven teaching environmental science, biology, and marine biology. And then the opportunity came along to work for a Cousteau and I couldn’t say no. So that’s where I am.

[00:08:22]
Ben Newsome: It’s kind of hard to say no to a Cousteau.

[00:08:26]
Jaclyn Gerakios: I think it’s nearly impossible, yes.

[00:08:29]
Ben Newsome: I had a chance to meet Jacques Cousteau’s son and daughter.

[00:08:35]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yeah, so Philippe is our co-founder, but he’s also our fearless leader. Philippe is an amazing boss. He comes to our planning, our meetings, he’s on expedition with us, and he really is such an inspiration, not only for myself in my career and my daily life, but for everybody that interacts with our organisation.

[00:08:58]
Jaclyn Gerakios: He is just so passionate about continuing the legacy of not only his grandfather Jacques, but his father Philippe Sr. And so that is what EarthEcho is all about. Both his father and his grandfather and Philippe all believe that we need to empower our youth to make sustainable choices and changes now so that the future is better for them on our planet.

[00:09:22]
Ben Newsome: An amazing legacy when you think about all those years ago, the original exploration that no one had really done that.

[00:09:30]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Exactly. He was a pioneer for sure.

[00:09:35]
Ben Newsome: And now, I mean, even just looking across, I was looking at the impact that EarthEcho actually has and it’s quite significant. I mean, you can just jump onto earthecho.org and you’ll just get a bit of an idea about exactly what’s going on. I mean, one and a half million students and all these countries around the globe. And yet at the same time, there’s so many more places to visit.

[00:09:56]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Exactly, yes. There’s always new adventures to be had, but we are very proud of the work that we do with youth. The Expeditions programme, I think, is a great way to continue that legacy of exploration and getting out there and looking at a problem. We use the teachers that we interact with to get to the youth that way.

[00:10:22]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Another piece of pride for us at EarthEcho is our Youth Leadership Council. In our Youth Leadership Council, we have about 15 young people from around the world that help us run our programmes. We believe it’s really important to get their impact or their input on what we’re doing. So, for example, for my Expeditions programme, I have an expeditions committee. We meet and we talk about what’s happening, they give me advice, and they help me run the programme. It’s really amazing. We also have two of our youth that serve on our actual Board of Directors, which is pretty incredible. So that’s something that we’re very proud of as an organisation.

[00:10:59]
Ben Newsome: I bet. And I was sort of just thinking here, so you grew up in Ohio, you end up in Florida doing a lot of marine biology, and now you’re travelling the globe with EarthEcho doing some awesome things. I guess I kind of wonder, if you had teachers in front of you from Ohio or any other, mind you Ohio is not completely landlocked, yes you have a lake nearby, but anyone who wants to get their kids into marine biology or aquatic ecology and yet there’s not really any real bodies of water as such around. How do these teachers work with their kids to explain the wonders and get the science into the kids given that they may have difficulty actually experiencing it in person?

[00:11:38]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Oh, I think that’s a really wonderful question. My biggest piece of advice for teachers is just to expose students to as much as they can. Even if it’s just a video of someone scuba diving, for me that was enough to catch my attention when I was a younger person. Especially with the world that we live in today and the technology…

[00:12:08]
Jaclyn Gerakios: There are so many things you can do in the classroom that take your students out of the classroom without actually taking them out of the classroom. There’s things like virtual field trips like what we do at EarthEcho. There’s also, if you can’t get dissections, there’s virtual dissections that you can do. I just think that we live in an age where students can be exposed to so many different things without actually having to go and be part of that. As a teacher in Florida here, I had lots of students who had never even been to the beach, let alone in the ocean. So I wouldn’t say that your location should discourage you from teaching students about all the wonders of the world, because there’s a lot of them and it would be impossible to get to all of them, sadly.

[00:12:45]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I bet. And then there’s the other side of the coin, you get to be involved in this programme, you travel the world, in this case it was down in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve got to say that because I know there’s a Melbourne in Florida, right, off the top of my head?

[00:12:57]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yes, there is, yes. It’s on the other coast, but yeah, there is a Melbourne in Florida as well.

[00:13:03]
Ben Newsome: That’s always confusing, isn’t it?

[00:13:05]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yes, it is.

[00:13:06]
Ben Newsome: You’ve got about 25-odd teachers doing this. They’re going to be working with you to produce their educational lessons that are going to go onto the website. Have they got a bit of an inkling of an idea about what they’re going to produce? Are they collating their data or whatever they’ve done to put it together into a project now? Do you get a bit of a feel as to what they’re going to pull together?

[00:13:30]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Oh, yes. Our fellows are working in different groups. We have, for example, one group that is working on a STEM design challenge about how to build a better bin, or a better trash can if you will. Engineering a way that makes it easier for people to recycle or compost. We have a group that is working on a nurdle STEM design because that was one thing that we did when we were in St Kilda with the Port Phillip EcoCentre. We went down to the beach and did a quadrat sectioning of the beach and found so many microplastics and nurdles. So a group of our fellows were really into that and they decided they wanted to create a STEM design challenge for students to think about how they can come up with a device or a machine that can help us clean up those nurdles.

[00:14:21]
Jaclyn Gerakios: We have another group that is working on a reclaimed playground, so the concept is students could essentially engineer their own playground out of recycled materials. We have another group working on alternatives to plastic packaging. They are all working really hard and they’re doing a great job for us and we’re really thankful for them.

[00:14:43]
Ben Newsome: Has EarthEcho had much of a chance to get in front of industry to chat about some of the things you’ve been finding out?

[00:14:48]
Jaclyn Gerakios: I’m sorry, say that one more time?

[00:14:50]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I’m just wondering, you’re working with schools, but I kind of wonder with this sort of work happening out in the field, have you had a chance to chat with industry regarding some of the things you’re finding out? For example, around microplastics. A lot of kids will think plastics in the ocean are just large items, but then you look at what actually happens in the way we wash our clothes and the way some of our clothes break down.

[00:15:17]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Exactly. I know, it’s so hard to get away from. Yes, so we do invite industry partners as part of our expeditions. The way our expedition works is all of the groups that our fellows get to interact with and in turn our production team interacts with, they volunteer their time to be part of our expedition. So that’s how we get those experts in, whether they’re scientists or non-profits. We had some government employees from Victoria in Australia that talked to us about what the state of Victoria is doing. So that is how we tie in those partners into the expedition based on the theme of the year.

[00:15:57]
Ben Newsome: Which could be interesting because over time that could have a cumulative impact, I suppose, on policy. If you’re over time involving government officials that either have a vested interest in it or want to know more, I mean that’s either way you’re exposing them to what’s actually going on on the ground, and that’s a good thing.

[00:16:13]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Definitely. And another thing that we incorporate into all of our lessons and into our mission and our statement and what we empower youth to do is we also empower them to get out there and talk to government officials, talk to their local representatives, to write letters, to do projects, to go out and talk to their families, talk to their schools, talk to their communities, and use their passion to make a difference as well, because we do believe that youth have the strongest voice. So that is something that we also advocate for a lot.

[00:16:44]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, I bet, absolutely. And of course, you’ve got your ambassadors that do their thing in their respective places too, which is absolutely fantastic. Have you had many challenges in terms of getting out to more and more people, or are people just coming at you like floodgates have been opened?

[00:17:00]
Jaclyn Gerakios: We, you know, this year was our first international expedition. So as far as expeditions go, it was a little bit tricky to get a foothold in a brand new country, but once we got there we felt welcomed and we loved everyone that we got to interact with. So I think that would be our biggest barrier, but other than that, as far as our water challenge and STEM Explore and virtual field trips, we have students and teachers from all over the world that are interacting and using our resources. So that’s really amazing.

[00:17:31]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. Now for those people, I mean, if they wanted to get some advice from you about how to get involved in marine biology and things, it seems to me start is probably the first step, I guess. But at the same time, I’m kind of wondering from yourself, I mean, how would they begin that journey to start working at marine laboratories and all those sorts of cool places? Where do they begin?

[00:17:58]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yeah, I think that it all begins with finding what you’re passionate about and also taking risks. So I have had, you know, lots of different job titles throughout my career, but I can also say that I have had lots of different unpaid internships or volunteer positions.

[00:18:24]
Jaclyn Gerakios: My biggest piece of advice for people who are interested in marine biology is to get out there and try things. Try being an aquarist, which is like a fish zookeeper. Try some informal education, so maybe you work at a visitor centre for a summer or that sort of thing. So I believe in going out and trying new things, trying internships, even if you don’t think it’s exactly what you want to do, it might lead you down a path that takes you to where you’re happy.

[00:18:51]
Ben Newsome: You’d be amazed what doors open when you open the first door.

[00:18:55]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Exactly. And that’s how I got started, you know. I was 15 in Ohio and I got started at the zoo and that led to more contacts and more, and then I got scuba certified, which opened up new doors for me, and so I think it’s just all about following your passion and taking risks and not being afraid to say, okay, well maybe this isn’t for me, but I know that now, so now I can focus on this thing.

[00:19:18]
Ben Newsome: Absolutely. I mean, I was just looking over your bio as well, that you’re a scuba instructor and you worked with a local sea turtle patrol. That’s got to be fun.

[00:19:26]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yes, I do. And it’s so fun. So that is my, I still keep that volunteer heart. Obviously I work for a non-profit, but that’s one of my unpaid joys that I get to do is working with a group here in Florida called Turtle Trackers. So from May through October, we monitor a seven-mile beach for loggerhead sea turtles, so the nesting females. We monitor them when they come up and lay their nests, and then we also get to monitor the really fun part, which is when the hatchlings come out to sea.

[00:19:57]
Ben Newsome: Oh wow. And that would be crazy when you connect everything. Just, there’s not like five or ten of them, there’s a heap of them going out to sea. I’ve never actually seen it happen.

[00:20:06]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Yes. So in a clutch, there’s typically between 85 and 100 hatchlings that will come out. The island that we patrol is not accessible by land, so you have to take a boat out there. They do have some campsites out there, but for the most part it’s pretty wild. What we do is we actually cage the nests when we find the clutch of eggs, but the cages have these special phalanges on the edges so if the nest hatched during the night or in the early morning when we’re not out patrolling quite yet, the hatchlings will make their way to the sea. For the most part, we don’t really get to see the hatchlings, but when we do get to see them it’s really special.

[00:20:49]
Jaclyn Gerakios: So once we have found those tracks of those babies that made it to the water, we wait three days and then we are allowed to dig into the nest and look for the eggshells. We count how many hatched shells there are, which tells us approximately how many babies made it out to the ocean. But sometimes there are what we call stragglers, and so that’s when we get to collect those stragglers, assess their health, and if we feel like they’re healthy enough, they get to be released right out into the big blue.

[00:21:18]
Ben Newsome: Yeah, that’s awesome. You’re currently living the dream considering what you wanted to do in Ohio and now you’re doing this. It’s great.

[00:21:26]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Thank you. Yes, I do feel like I’m living the dream and I have to pinch myself every day for that.

[00:21:33]
Ben Newsome: That’s awesome. Look Jaclyn, thank you very much for jumping on the Fizzics Ed Podcast. And of course for any people listening who would love to get involved with EarthEcho International in some way, shape or form, so how would they do that?

[00:21:45]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Definitely check out our website, it is www.earthecho.org. You can find information about all four of our core programmes there. I would definitely recommend everyone to follow us on social media. We’re on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter just as @EarthEcho. We also have a newsletter. Our newsletter is a great way to learn about upcoming events, what’s happening within the organisation and I promise you we don’t spam you too much. So I would also highly recommend signing up for our newsletter.

[00:22:14]
Ben Newsome: Well, that’s true. I mean, you’re trying to stop plastic pollution in the seas, you’re about stopping email pollution in your email.

[00:22:20]
Jaclyn Gerakios: That’s right. No spam.

[00:22:22]
Ben Newsome: That’s right. Well, thank you very much Jaclyn. Much appreciate your time.

[00:22:26]
Jaclyn Gerakios: Thank you so much. It was lovely talking to you, Ben.

[00:22:29]
Announcer: We hope you’ve been enjoying the Fizzics Ed Podcast. We love making science make sense. Why don’t you book us for a science show or workshop in your school? If you’re outside of Australia, you can connect with us via a virtual excursion. See our website for more.

[00:22:46]
Ben Newsome: Well there we go, we were hearing from Jaclyn Gerakios who you can really tell is a highly passionate marine science educator and has been doing it for many, many years. And while I was talking with her, it got me thinking that you can yourself get involved in this type of work. If you pop in marine education into Google, more importantly like a society or a group in your local area, you will find there are people around that you can get involved with and learn about not only the sciences, but also how to get that education out to people. And tell you what, there’s also citizen science you can do. Jump onto iTunes and that type of thing and type in Redmap. If you’re in Australia, that is a citizen science project where you can track fish populations right around the Australian coast, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are apps exactly like that in your local area.

[00:23:28]
Ben Newsome: And even if you’re landlocked, like Jaclyn was saying, you can get connected in a virtual field trip with marine biology experts. It’s easily done. Just go to the Centre for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, cilc.org, or just look up virtual excursions Australia. Look for places that do this. There are a couple of places in mind that absolutely, there’s EarthEcho International without a doubt, there’s Mote Marine Laboratory, there’s the Aquarium of the Pacific, there’s the Alaska SeaLife Centre, there’s Reef HQ. There are so many places that you can start connecting your students with to learn about marine sciences first-hand from marine science educators, which is a very good thing. And I really encourage for you, if you’re a teacher, to tap the shoulders of EarthEcho International and see how you can get involved and maybe get yourself in on one of their expeditions. It would be unreal, and tell you what, I would like to be involved in that myself. It’d be a lot of fun.

[00:24:08]
Ben Newsome: Anyway, so that’s enough for this week. We do have more episodes coming up. I hope you have a fantastic week. I hope you have a fantastic month, let’s be honest. And I hope to catch you another time. You’ve been listening to me, Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education, and you’ve been listening to the Fizzics Ed Podcast. I’ll catch you next week.

[00:24:34]
Announcer: You’ve been listening to another Fizzics Ed Podcast. We’re excited about science. Subscribe to us on iTunes to download the next episode as soon as it’s released. And don’t forget, for hundreds of ideas, free experiments, our new Be Amazing book and more, go to fizzicseducation.com.au. That’s physics spelled F I Z Z I C S.

[00:25:03]
Announcer: This podcast is part of the Australian Educators Online Network. AEON. AEON.net.au.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core mission of EarthEcho International?
Founded by the grandchildren of Jacques Cousteau, the organisation aims to empower youth to take action for a sustainable planet. They achieve this through programmes like EarthEcho Expeditions and the Youth Leadership Council, which place young people at the centre of environmental decision-making.

What are ‘nurdles’ and why were they a focus during the Melbourne expedition?
Nurdles are small plastic pellets used in manufacturing that often end up as marine pollution. During their time in St Kilda, the EarthEcho Fellows conducted quadrat sectioning on the beach and found high concentrations of these microplastics, leading to the development of STEM challenges for students to design nurdle-cleaning machines.

How can teachers in landlocked areas teach marine science effectively?
Jaclyn suggests using technology to take students out of the classroom virtually. This includes using virtual field trips, virtual dissections, and high-quality video content from organisations like EarthEcho to expose students to ecosystems they cannot physically visit, such as the open ocean or coral reefs.

What is the role of the Youth Leadership Council within EarthEcho?
This council consists of 15 young people from around the world who actively help run the organisation’s programmes. They provide input on expeditions and even have two representatives serving on the Board of Directors, ensuring that youth voices actively drive the organisation’s strategy.

What does a sea turtle patrol volunteer do in Florida?
Volunteers like Jaclyn monitor beaches during nesting season (May to October). They cage nests to protect eggs, count hatched shells after three days to determine success rates, and rescue ‘stragglers’—hatchlings that didn’t make it out of the nest—to ensure they reach the ocean safely.

Discussion points summarised from the EarthEcho with Jaclyn Gerakios with AI assistance, verified and edited by Ben Newsome CF

Extra thought ideas to consider

Technology as an Equaliser in Science Education
How can virtual reality and live-streamed ‘STEM Explore’ events bridge the gap for students in rural or inland communities to ensure they feel as connected to ocean conservation as those living on the coast?

The Impact of Youth Governance
EarthEcho includes youth on their Board of Directors. Consider how environmental policy and educational programmes might change if more organisations gave students actual voting power and leadership roles rather than just advisory positions.

Design Thinking for Environmental Solutions
Instead of just teaching students about the problem of microplastics, how can we use the EarthEcho ‘Fellows’ model to challenge students to engineer physical solutions, like nurdle traps or reclaimed material playgrounds, in their local communities?