Coral Keepers
Case Study
Overview
My Role
The corals are dying!
Current coral restoration efforts rely heavily on specialized scientists, limited funding, and localized nurseries, restricting the scale and speed of recovery.
Where does our problem start?
Ten weeks of primary and secondary research pointed to three main areas of concern.
Introducing Coral Keepers
n LMS platform that gives educators the tools to teach coral restoration, and gives students the chance to actively participate in the process. Paired with a full scale classroom coral growing tank.
Physical Prototype
In addition to the LMS website, we needed to create a physical prototype of the coral growing tank that would be used in classrooms.
Building the Tank
Now that all of the specs of the tank were finalized, we were able to start building the physicaltank combining 3d prints and acrylic sheets.
Demo Day
As a group, we presented our physical and digital prototypes at a demo day for the university.
The Impact
Turning classrooms into a network of small coral nurseries. Spread across enough schools, that adds up, potentially thousands of coral fragments donated to restoration partners every year. Educationally this isn't a just a one-day lesson on climate change. Students spend an entire school year keeping something alive, which changes the science from something they read about to something they're responsible for. For a lot of them, it could be the first real, hands-on brush with marine science, and maybe the thing that points them toward it as a career.
You can read the full case study here.