Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation
Providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health
For the past two decades, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation has used a three-pronged approach of science, education, and outreach to create lasting conservation for some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable coral reef systems. Success in …
About Mangrove Detectives Mangrove Detectives is a citizen science program that helps identify mangrove disease and insect communities, while at the same time providing unique educational opportunities for students. By coupling field and lab activities and online tools, students receive …
Scientists are looking to students across the Caribbean for their help studying the health of mangrove forests. This week, Dr. Ryann Rossi, a post-doctoral scholar at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), launched the Mangrove Detectives Project with help from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation and Friends of the Environment. Mangrove Detectives is a new citizen-science project that teaches students valuable laboratory and field skills while they document mangrove disease and insect communities in their local mangrove forest. The project provides teachers, non-profit organizations, and environmental educators with free lesson plans, field kits, and laboratory materials to help their students study threats to their local mangrove forest and become part of an international community of Mangrove Detectives.
Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Earth program is harnessing the power of the Global Reef Expedition dataset to build a predictive model of global coral reef health and resilience. Anna Bakker, a Ph.D. student working with KSLOF’s Chief Scientist Dr. Sam Purkis on remote sensing of coral reefs, was awarded the Microsoft AI for Earth Grant for the duration of her Ph.D. This program will grant us access to use the immense power of AI, machine learning, and cloud computing to analyze the data collected during the Global Reef Expedition.
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2020 Science Without Borders® Challenge! This annual art contest inspires students from all over the world to be creative while learning about important ocean science and conservation issues. The theme for this year’s competition is “Take Action: Conserve Coral Reefs,” and scholarships of up to $500 will be awarded to the winning entries.
The Challenge is open to all students who are 11-19 years old and enrolled in primary or secondary school (or the home-school equivalent). Entries must be received by Monday, April 20, to be eligible to win.
In 2011, scientists from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation set out on a mission to explore the remote coral reefs of the world. An international team of scientists, photographers, videographers and conservationists, as well as local leaders, were assembled to map, characterize, and evaluate coral reefs throughout the western Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. They wanted to take a snapshot of the reefs in time, to survey and map the reefs and assess their health before it was too late.
Previously, you heard the voice of the students in our J.A.M.I.N. program. Now it’s time to hear how the students in The Bahamas feel about our Bahamas Awareness of Mangroves (B.A.M.) program! 1st Year B.A.M. Students: “I learned that mangroves are more vital to …
The Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation is proud to share with you our TV series on the Global Reef Expedition—which is now available to stream on our website! In this series of videos, you’ll follow our international team of scientists …
Throughout the B.A.M. and J.A.M.I.N. programs, we evaluate each program by surveying students. This data helps us to determine whether our education programs are effective and whether we know our audience. It also allows us to measure how much knowledge is retained and whether or not their attitudes and actions about mangroves change as they continue through the program. One of my favorite things to do after the programs have ended is to read the students’ written responses. In this blog you will find select responses to the final survey. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
There are too many good memories to share, but I want to reflect on a few of the more unforgettable ones from my last five years implementing the J.A.M.I.N. program. And I don’t need to look at the data collected from our surveys to know that the program is reaching students and teachers in a meaningful way. Whether the gesture is great or small, what has most convinced me that we are making a difference is the appreciation, interest, and eagerness expressed by our students and teachers in Jamaica.
