Hello Reef Central,
I am very proud to have my third grade class and me chosen as May’s reefers of the month. My passion for aquaria began four years ago when I picked up a one-gallon tank for my classroom at a garage sale. I had several students who were not flourishing at school and needed an outlet, something to take care of. Just bringing in one little neon tetra had an immediate affect not only on those students, but on the whole classroom community. The students had a life form to be responsible for, and the care and compassion they showed for that little fish slowly transferred to how they treated each other and finally themselves. Since then, I have had increasingly bigger aquariums in my classroom. I’ve had my room trashed by destructive students dozens of times, chairs thrown, fights, etc., but the fish tank is always sacrosanct. When I talk to my former students, they all remember the aquarium and already have, or plan to have, one of their own.
Since that first one-gallon tank, I knew I wanted to have a marine aquarium at school. I wanted a platform to teach not only science, but also all areas of curriculum. I wanted my students to be almost completely responsible for its setup and maintenance. Many of my educational peers thought that the complex chemistry required to maintain proper water perimeters would be completely over the head of a nine-year-old. All of my aquarium friends thought that kids could never handle the responsibility or be careful enough to keep fragile life forms alive. With their warnings in mind, last August I took a leap of faith and spent all of my personal savings on a 120-gallon tank setup for my classroom. And in the last eight months, the hard work and dedication of my students has impressed me, our local community, and reefers around the world. My team of 23 students, led by four student leaders (reef bosses), completes all of the regular maintenance and water testing, collaboratively makes decisions about the tank, and has fundraised over $10,000 in donations (special thanks to EcoTech, Quality Marine, Tampa Bay Salt Water, and Diablo Corals). The result of their hard work is a healthy reef system that is the pride of our school. Students from every grade level show up on their own or with their entire class to learn from our tank, and I routinely come in to school on weekends to see kids from all over the neighborhood peeking at the tank through the windows.
At Garden Hills, 84% of the students live below the poverty line and deal with many issues that influence their social and academic growth at school. The enthusiasm for learning and caring for the reef tank has had a profound effect on many of the kids I work with. Two recent and seemingly small events exemplify this change.
At the end of March I received a care package from an RC member (Live Rock) that had in addition to many other wonderful things, a huge hermit crab that became infamous for its large claws and lighting fast speed. When it came time to move it from quarantine to its newly cycled tank, many students tried but none were able to get up the courage to pick it up and move it. In a moment of silence, a shy kid named Julio rolled up his sleeves, pushed his way through the crowd, and without hesitation picked up the crab and put it in its new home. Julio went from being the shy kid to the class hero. To this day he is still remembered as the crab man and always stands up a little straighter when his friends talk about that day.
Another third grader named Scott comes into see the tank each morning before school starts. He chats with my students and helps them work on the tank. Scott kept insisting that the crab I called a spider crab was actually an arrow head crab. After several days of argument, he walked across town on his own, checked out a book from the library, and came back the next day to prove me wrong. Since then, he has become one of the most informed students in my school in regards to marine biology. He has read dozens of books, many above his grade level. His desire to keep learning helps him struggle through dense college-level texts, all so that he can pick out more nuggets of information about our project.
The enthusiasm that my students have for our project has become contagious. Many teachers in my school have become interested, and I’ve recently set up a 90-gallon reef system in a neighboring bilingual room. I’m almost done saving up for a 50-gallon FOWLR tank, and I hope to have a marine tank of some kind in all of the third-grade classrooms by the end of this year. I am in the process of writing curriculum to be explicitly taught using marine aquaria as a hands-on platform for learning, and I will co-teach marine biology and science with all of the teachers on my grade level.
None of this could be possible without the help of Reef Central. Not only have the members donated, answered questions, and publicized our project to an extent where it’s caught the attention of corporate donors, RC has made us feel connected to a larger community. Not many adults ‘get’ what we are doing, and often our project feels too big for us to do on our own. At the end of a long day, I go home assured that whatever happens, I’ll have the members of RC at my back, rooting us on and helping when needed.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart,
Brandon Rutherford
I am very proud to have my third grade class and me chosen as May’s reefers of the month. My passion for aquaria began four years ago when I picked up a one-gallon tank for my classroom at a garage sale. I had several students who were not flourishing at school and needed an outlet, something to take care of. Just bringing in one little neon tetra had an immediate affect not only on those students, but on the whole classroom community. The students had a life form to be responsible for, and the care and compassion they showed for that little fish slowly transferred to how they treated each other and finally themselves. Since then, I have had increasingly bigger aquariums in my classroom. I’ve had my room trashed by destructive students dozens of times, chairs thrown, fights, etc., but the fish tank is always sacrosanct. When I talk to my former students, they all remember the aquarium and already have, or plan to have, one of their own.
Since that first one-gallon tank, I knew I wanted to have a marine aquarium at school. I wanted a platform to teach not only science, but also all areas of curriculum. I wanted my students to be almost completely responsible for its setup and maintenance. Many of my educational peers thought that the complex chemistry required to maintain proper water perimeters would be completely over the head of a nine-year-old. All of my aquarium friends thought that kids could never handle the responsibility or be careful enough to keep fragile life forms alive. With their warnings in mind, last August I took a leap of faith and spent all of my personal savings on a 120-gallon tank setup for my classroom. And in the last eight months, the hard work and dedication of my students has impressed me, our local community, and reefers around the world. My team of 23 students, led by four student leaders (reef bosses), completes all of the regular maintenance and water testing, collaboratively makes decisions about the tank, and has fundraised over $10,000 in donations (special thanks to EcoTech, Quality Marine, Tampa Bay Salt Water, and Diablo Corals). The result of their hard work is a healthy reef system that is the pride of our school. Students from every grade level show up on their own or with their entire class to learn from our tank, and I routinely come in to school on weekends to see kids from all over the neighborhood peeking at the tank through the windows.
At Garden Hills, 84% of the students live below the poverty line and deal with many issues that influence their social and academic growth at school. The enthusiasm for learning and caring for the reef tank has had a profound effect on many of the kids I work with. Two recent and seemingly small events exemplify this change.
At the end of March I received a care package from an RC member (Live Rock) that had in addition to many other wonderful things, a huge hermit crab that became infamous for its large claws and lighting fast speed. When it came time to move it from quarantine to its newly cycled tank, many students tried but none were able to get up the courage to pick it up and move it. In a moment of silence, a shy kid named Julio rolled up his sleeves, pushed his way through the crowd, and without hesitation picked up the crab and put it in its new home. Julio went from being the shy kid to the class hero. To this day he is still remembered as the crab man and always stands up a little straighter when his friends talk about that day.
Another third grader named Scott comes into see the tank each morning before school starts. He chats with my students and helps them work on the tank. Scott kept insisting that the crab I called a spider crab was actually an arrow head crab. After several days of argument, he walked across town on his own, checked out a book from the library, and came back the next day to prove me wrong. Since then, he has become one of the most informed students in my school in regards to marine biology. He has read dozens of books, many above his grade level. His desire to keep learning helps him struggle through dense college-level texts, all so that he can pick out more nuggets of information about our project.
The enthusiasm that my students have for our project has become contagious. Many teachers in my school have become interested, and I’ve recently set up a 90-gallon reef system in a neighboring bilingual room. I’m almost done saving up for a 50-gallon FOWLR tank, and I hope to have a marine tank of some kind in all of the third-grade classrooms by the end of this year. I am in the process of writing curriculum to be explicitly taught using marine aquaria as a hands-on platform for learning, and I will co-teach marine biology and science with all of the teachers on my grade level.
None of this could be possible without the help of Reef Central. Not only have the members donated, answered questions, and publicized our project to an extent where it’s caught the attention of corporate donors, RC has made us feel connected to a larger community. Not many adults ‘get’ what we are doing, and often our project feels too big for us to do on our own. At the end of a long day, I go home assured that whatever happens, I’ll have the members of RC at my back, rooting us on and helping when needed.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart,
Brandon Rutherford
