Elementary Students Visit National Historic Site For Marine Exploration Presentation

ST. CROIX -- Students from the Pearl B. Larsen and Ricardo Richards elementary schools attended a live video call at the National Park Service’s Christiansted National Historic Site on November 2 with crew members stationed on the Okeanos Explorer, a National Ocean Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel currently exploring the waters of the Buck Island Reef National Monument, the Department of Education announced Friday. According to the NOAA Ocean Explorer website, the Okeanos Explorer is the “only federal vessel dedicated to exploring our unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge about the deep ocean.” Pearl B. Larsen fifth grade teacher Alex Hewlett-Newton and Ricardo Richards’ Zahra O’Rielly-Bates’ classes were invited to participate in the learning activity. National Park Service Biologist Clayton Pollock helped students navigate the NOAA Ocean Explorer website, at which time students engaged Pollock in questions about marine and wild life. “You...