{"id":645,"date":"2018-07-18T16:01:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=70322"},"modified":"2018-07-18T16:01:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:01:57","slug":"inaugural-ocean-science-class-at-st-anthony-high-proves-popular-with-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/inaugural-ocean-science-class-at-st-anthony-high-proves-popular-with-students","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural ocean science class at St. Anthony High proves popular with students"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_70344\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70344\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-70344 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ocean-and-scuba.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left to right) St. Anthony High School teacher Larry Berlin and student Zoe Kennedy pose with Deep Blue Scuba and Swim Center owner Jonathan Hall at Hall&#8217;s Belmont Shore business. Photo by Stephanie Rivera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>St. Anthony High School science teacher Larry Berlin wasn\u2019t sure how popular an ocean science class with a scuba diving component would be among students when he introduced it for the first time last fall.<\/p>\n<p>But nearly a year after that inaugural class began with just 16 students, Berlin said there is now a waiting list to get in for the next school year\u2014and that is in addition to the expanded offering of classes to three sections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m addicted to scuba diving and I love teaching it,\u201d said Berlin, who has been a scuba diver for nearly a dozen years.<\/p>\n<p>The class was originally proposed by Assistant Principal Jose De Vera, presumably after being fed up with Berlin talking about diving all the time, the instructor said jokingly.<\/p>\n<p>Berlin is not alone in his passion for the sea.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"WhUDfy289d\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/six-st-anthony-high-school-students-become-certified-scuba-divers-first-in-school-history\">Six St. Anthony High School Students Become Certified Scuba Divers\u2014First in School History<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Six St. Anthony High School Students Become Certified Scuba Divers\u2014First in School History&#8221; &#8212; Long Beach Post News\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/news\/education\/six-st-anthony-high-school-students-become-certified-scuba-divers-first-in-school-history\/embed\/#?secret=BMqg99NIy6#?secret=WhUDfy289d\" data-secret=\"WhUDfy289d\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The program, one of only a handful in the state, could not have been possible without help from Jonathan Hall, owner of Deep Blue Scuba and Swim Center in Belmont Shore.<\/p>\n<p>Hall agreed to provide not only the facility, but the gear and instructors for free to those eight students who opted to get scuba certified.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy goal was to get the youth back into diving because it is so empowering, so amazing,\u201d Hall said. \u201cThere&#8217;s so many resources, there\u2019s so much attention that our ocean needs that getting the kids inspired about it is important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of those kids Hall and Berlin have inspired is 17-year-old Zoe Kennedy, who was part of the inaugural class. She said she wanted to take the class because her family was planning a trip to Australia last December, so both her and her mother decided to get scuba certified to be able to see the Great Barrier Reef\u2014considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70325\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70325\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-70325 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Zoe-Scuba.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70325\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Anthony High School student Zoe Kennedy swam through the Great Barrier Reef in December after getting certified as a scuba diver through a new ocean science class. Photo courtesy of Kennedy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe thought it\u2019d be awesome,\u201d Kennedy said, adding that the reef\u2019s predicted death by scientists also motivated the pair to see it.<\/p>\n<p>The semester-long course incorporates science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, known as STEAM, with students studying everything from physics to marine biology. It\u2019s open to students in grades 10-12 with a requirement of having already completed Algebra 1 and biology with at least a B.<\/p>\n<p>The certification component of the class was done over a few weekends and included five pool dives at Deep Blue and four open water dives, which Hall also coordinated for the students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wouldn&#8217;t be able to get the class certified without him,\u201d Berlin said of Hall, noting that Hall also helped coordinate events like a seahorse dive and underwater cleanups at the Belmont Pier and Catalina.<\/p>\n<p>Hall said these dives help tie all the academics students learn to something tangible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou physically experience all these things firsthand and so it really adds dimension and life to science,\u201d said Hall, who began scuba diving at 18 when he was a U.S. Navy deep sea diver. \u201cOnce you open up that world, with all the things you do need help with, like underwater cleanups, plastics awareness, the health of our oceans, runoff in our rivers, we need our youth to get passionate about this and do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hall hopes that by making these dives personal for students, when they see little seahorses living in the city\u2019s bay, they feel compelled to protect them.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_70327\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-70327\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-70327 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/scuba-seahorse.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-70327\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Anthony High School teacher Larry Berlin snapped a photo of a seahorse while diving with students from his new ocean science class.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThey are the inspiration for the future so hopefully we\u2019ll start the inspiration early,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n<p>That seems to include Kennedy, who says she now plans to study marine biology and eventually become an environmentalist or biologist.<\/p>\n<p>When Kennedy and her mom finally got to explore the Australian reef, she said it was breathtaking \u2014 but she also noticed that some divers were careless when they swam through the reef.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople [would] just go right through the reef and kind of hit it with their fin and wouldn&#8217;t care and it was annoying to me because the reef is so important and people don\u2019t care,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cBut then me and my mom were really cautious because we knew it was important (because of the class).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the class has opened up Kennedy\u2019s eyes to the importance of marine life, it has also opened doors\u2014she was recently hired by Hall to work at Deep Blue, and she said she has already began recommending the class to her peers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScuba diving is just like a different world underwater,\u201d said Kennedy. \u201cSo it&#8217;s interesting to see how other life lives and it&#8217;s nice to be aware of all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Anthony High School science teacher Larry Berlin wasn\u2019t sure how popular an ocean science class with a scuba diving component would be among students when he introduced it last 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