Nell Herrmann and Nora Bradford, teachers at Blue Hill Consolidated School in Blue Hill, Maine, coordinated a Seaweed Week celebration to engage the school’s students in learning about the wide array of uses for the sustainable algae found right in their home region.
From March 18-22, 2024, all 257 students in grades PK-8 at Blue Hill Consolidated School in Blue Hill, Maine celebrated Seaweed Week. The week was inspired by the Kelp Curriculum from the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and WWF, the 2024 Read ME Agriculture program, and the school's 2023-2024 theme, "The Sea Around Us."
Each PK-4 classroom received a copy of the book The Wakame Gatherers, written by Holly Thompson and illustrated by Kazumi Wilds, courtesy of Maine Agriculture in the Classroom. Other classrooms received copies of With a Little Kelp from Our Friends, written by Mathew Bate and illustrated by Liz Rowland, courtesy of WWF.
During Seaweed Week, students read books about seaweed in their classrooms and during library time, they played seaweed tag in PE, they tasted seaweed crackers, condiments, quesadillas and other seaweed snacks, and they created seaweed-inspired artwork. All students helped in the creation of murals of Maine’s rocky intertidal seaweed and engaged in a variety of hands-on activities including making seaweed lava lamps and bookmarks, visiting a seaweed touch tank, and cooking with seaweed. They also enjoyed interacting with seaweed experts from WWF, 4H, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, and Maine Sea Grant.
Blue Hill Consolidated School is grateful to the visitors for their time and expertise, and we are happy that our students have developed an appreciation for seaweed, a group of organisms important to marine ecosystems and beyond. Much focus was placed on the fact that kelp is a sustainable crop that can be grown and harvested in Maine, and that kelp can provide winter work and income for Maine lobstermen and women. Kelp farms don’t require farmland, fresh water, pesticides, or fertilizers and they reduce carbon dioxide, phosphorus and nitrogen! Kelp aquaculture is an up-and-coming industry (60% of the farmed edible seaweed produced in the United States comes from Maine), which could provide future jobs for many of our students.
