Through this experience, Claire was able to gain an understanding of how familiar families were with the concept of storm surge, find out how interested they were in learning about it, and experiment with different ways of engaging families in co-learning. Participants were from all over the United States, including Connecticut, North Carolina, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and they all had personal connections to the water that helped them to relate to the content.

While the term “storm surge” may have been unfamiliar to families, all of the families were able to understand its meaning. Many families shared experiences about encountering a storm. The activity portion was open-ended in a way that allowed the families to discuss and consider different solutions. Because each family was at their own table, they could operate as their own little unit.

Claire’s lesson explored different human-made and natural solutions to mitigating storm surge, and it was enlightening for our education team to see how the families decided to design their own solutions.

This proved to be a successful workshop, and it will become an activity in the rotation of programs to complement Saltwater Stories.