Hello,

My name is Chris Saunders I am ascience teacher at Venture Academy located in Marriott-Slaterville or somepeople might know it better as north Ogden. We are a charter school that usesexpeditionary learning. A major portion of ourcurriculum is integrated into long-term, deep study of topics. We call theselong-term studies Learning Expeditions. We use the term“expedition” metaphorically. Lewis and Clark went, not on a trip, but an expedition--anincredible and unforgettable journey in which they met challenges, solvedproblems, and arrived at a destination that seemed unattainable.  Usingthe term “expedition” in the phrase, “learning expedition,” adds the sense thatthis learning experience will not just be a "lesson", or a "unit"to cover.  It will be instead a deep, wide, and engaging learningexperience that may take anywhere from several weeks to several months toaccomplish. 

         For being a relatively small middle school, Venture’s 6th to8th offers an impressive array of elective offerings that give students theopportunity to pursue their interests.  They also provide teachers withopportunities to teach courses in which they have a particular interest. Teachers often make use of local resources (nature, experts, and fieldwork) toenrich the experiences.

         Asstated in the previous paragraph we as teachers get to teach courses thatinterest us as teachers. I have been keeping some sort of aquariumthroughout my life both salt and freshwater aquariums and I just taught anelective that I called “Tanked” in which the students got the opportunity tolearn about setting up aquariums, this term they got to set up a 80 gallonfreshwater planted tank.

         Asfun as it was setting up this tank not all the students got to be involved andso for my next term that I teach this I would like to do smaller tanks so thateach student would get a chance to be involved. The next time I would beteaching this will actually be in January and I want to focus just on Marineaquariums in particular reef tanks as the students will get a betterunderstanding of a ecosystem in a new light. I would like to get  8 2-3 gallon tanks that I could have the studentsset up with easy corals and a fish or shrimp. For this process we can bring inexperts to teach the students better then I could about lighting, waterquality, substrate, and so on. So in conclusion I would like to ask and see ifanybody could help in any way be it your time to come and talk to the studentsand be an expert or if you have a small tank/ fish or coral lying around thatyou are not using or want to rehome and would be willing to donate it to a worthycause. I know that this is far away but I thought I would put it out there soif any of you have any ideas for me to go about this that would be amazing.

Thanks,

Chris Saunders