Marissa Blackburn, education program specialist at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, recently completed her N.C. Environmental Education Certification. Marissa says working toward her certification in environmental education has allowed her skills as an educator to grow, making her a more competitive candidate for employment in the field.
As an educator at the aquarium, Marissa presents public programs to visitors on a variety of marine topics through dive shows, live animal encounters, auditorium lectures and exhibit feedings. She coordinates both a year-round and a summer teen volunteer program in addition to a senior project program and a college education internship program. When she isn’t presenting a program or training or supervising and coordinating volunteers and interns, Marissa has the opportunity to interact one-on-one with visitors at the exhibits.
Marissa says one of the highlights of her experiences in the certification program was taking seasonal birding workshops with Mike Campbell, an outreach education specialist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “I think these were my favorite workshops because we were outside all day, learning field skills for identifying different species of birds. With each workshop I attended, my appreciation for birds grew greater. I am by no means a bird expert now, but I enjoy watching, listening to, and identifying birds when I can and teaching others to do the same. Plus, Mike’s ability to identify any species of bird based on its call is awe-inspiring!”
For her community partnership project, Marissa created a recycling program for the local Boys and Girls Club in Wilmington. She created lesson plans, developed a program manual and held a staff training for the program in addition to teaching lessons to children.
Marissa says participating in the program helped her become a more engaging and interactive educator. “Learning about methods and best practices in environmental education and applying these principles to my teaching has resulted in more impactful, memorable programs for my audiences. I have also been able to share methods, principles, and best practices with interns and volunteers I coordinate increasing further the impact of the certification program.”
Find out more about the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher or the N.C. Environmental Education Certification Program.
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