Our Virtual Speaker Series is an opportunity to learn from marine and aquatic educators, scientists, traditional knowledge practitioners, and other industry professionals. Speakers have shared experiences, educational tips, and stories from the field. The following talks are from the 2024/2025 season of the Speaker Series.
To see what’s coming up next, please visit our Virtual Speaker Page.
May 2025
Connecting youth to the ocean through near-peer mentoring
Regina Cozzi
Biology Department, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia
X-Oceans Outreach is a mobile program that promotes ocean literacy to you in rural areas of Nova Scotia. The program, led by laboratory instructors of the Biology Dept. to St. Francis Xavier University, connects undergraduate and graduate students to youth in underserved school communities. Through a near-peer mentoring approach, student facilitators from diverse STEM programs provide hands-on inquiry-based activities to young learners. This presentation will focus on the program’s framework and challenges for promoting ocean stewardship, facilitators’ development and youths’ ocean identity development through STEM. This type of framework and experiential activities can easily be adapted beyond the shores of Nova Scotia to the shores of the Northwest Pacific coastline.
Regina Cozzi is a senior laboratory instructor and researcher in the Biology Department of St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia. She has a background in molecular biology and environmental immunotoxicology. Her passion for ocean literacy outreach started in 2012, when she realized that, even though she lived in a coastal community, most youth lacked knowledge about the ocean. She started working on a framework to bring to life the X-Oceans Outreach program bringing the department’s resources to local educators and bridging the gap between researchers/scientists and rural school communities.
April 2025
20,000 Sensors Under the Sea: Ocean Networks Canada and K-12 Education
Nick Hammar & Lauren Hudson
Ocean Networks Canada
Join Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) K-12 Education team to learn about innovative ocean technology that is bringing ocean data to the surface. ONC has established an ocean-observing network featuring deep-sea, coastal, and land-based observatory infrastructures in the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans, as well as in Antarctica. This is helping scientists around the world learn more about the global ocean, with real-time data that is free and open to all. Dip into ONC’s free K-12 educational resources which bring ocean science into classrooms and communities, including our Ocean Sense program co-developed with Indigenous partners.
As Youth Programs Coordinator, Nick Hammar works with the K-12 Education Coordinators to plan and deliver educational offerings using ONC data at events involving K-12 youth or K-12 educators, including in-person and virtual classroom presentations, public outreach events, and conferences. Lauren Hudson is a K-12 Education Coordinator, with learner and educator engagement as well as a deep respect for the ocean at the heart of her work.
March 2025
Eelgrass as Teacher
Nikki Wright
SeaChange Marine Conservation Society, a community conservation not for profit organization on Vancouver Island in British Columbia has chosen native eelgrass (Zostera marina) as the medium for young people at all grade levels to learn about the rich diversity of life within these emerald underwater gardens. This “show and tell” presentation is the story of my experiences with eelgrass as a teacher for exploring seagrass communities for Grades 1-6 and is applicable for other marine educators in the “NAME” community.
Eelgrass as Teacher resource article
Nikki Wright served as the Executive Director of SeaChange Marine Conservation Society from 1998 to 2023, and as Co-Chair of the Seagrass Conservation Working Group since 2001. Hands-on feet-wet marine education is a focus for much of her work throughout the Salish Sea. Nikki works with others to take what has been learned locally about eelgrass restoration in the Saanich Inlet and helps other coastal communities in B.C. contribute to a net gain of nearshore marine habitat. She considers herself very fortunate to work within communities to help make a change in the ways we perceive the ocean and all its beauty.
February 2025
Sea Stars of the West Coast
Phil Lambert
Between Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound there are 69 species of sea stars, one of the most diverse regions in the world for sea star species. This talk will describe the biology and anatomy of some of the more common species. We will also touch on the recent sea star wasting disease that has had a major effect on the marine ecology of the west coast.
Philip Lambert was Curator of Marine Invertebrates at the Royal BC Museum from 1973 to 2007. He has written 3 handbooks covering the five classes of echinoderms and has Scuba dived in many areas of the BC coast and SE Alaska.
January 2025
Ecology of Killer Whale Ecotypes along the Pacific Coast
Josh McInnes, MSc Candidate
Marine Mammal Research Unit
Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries