An Admirer from Down Under
Joan Turner, DISL Marine Educator

Ms. Simone Baker, a Marine Studies Coordinator/Educator in Queensland, Australia, is committed to continuous improvement in her teaching practices through professional development, team teaching, peer support, networking, mentoring, and traveling around the world!  Amazingly enough, the Sea Lab was one of her places to visit, by personal invitation, that is.  Mendel Graeber and I met her at the National Marine Educators’ Conference in St. Petersburg, FL in July and invited her to visit.

Ms. Baker received the Westfield Premier’s Educational Scholarship which is designed to inspire teachers and community educators to plan and provide marine education.  She was awarded 3 months’ travel time and money to cover her expenses, but plans to extend her travels to 6 months.  Her focus on this journey is to visit innovative and inspiring marine education centers.

As a teacher at Holy Spirit College in Mackay, Queensland, grades 9-12, Ms. Baker offers her students enthusiasm, innovative teaching techniques, and excursions, such as scuba courses and south passage sailing trips.  Ms. Baker says, “Education is the key in raising awareness to protect our marine environment.  I am an educator with a big future.  I want to learn, explore, and experience.  I believe that I can successfully do this for myself, my students and colleagues through this opportunity.”

Ms. Baker is interested in looking at how US schools and educational resource centers use innovative teaching to inform and educate students as well as teachers.  Her travels began in California, where she visited a multitude of marine education facilities.  She plans to spend 3 months of her time in North America before continuing on to South America, stopping first in Lima, Peru where she will take a jaunt over to the Galapagos Islands.  Some of Ms. Baker’s scheduled trips include a weeklong excursion down the Nile, visits to Madrid and also to Hong Kong.  She will be visiting all the continents, excluding Antarctica, on a World Ticket. The National Marine Educators’ conference opened the door for her to travel to locations around the world with a personal invitation from the educators that she met to see others’ facilities and experience what they do.

While on Dauphin Island Ms. Baker toured the Sea Lab, as well as the Environmental Studies Center in Mobile, Weeks Bay Preserve on the Eastern Shore, and lastly The Pelican’s Nest, a K-1 marine laboratory at the Fairhope K-1 Center.  While here on Dauphin Island she enjoyed milkshakes at The Cow and Bean and the relaxing atmosphere on the beach.  She appreciated the Island’s “great southern hospitality.”

We wish Ms. Baker the best on her journey and look forward to seeing her again in the future, hopefully this time on her home turf.