Ocean explorer set to visit Country Day School

At 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, the "Ocean Doctor" will make his first presentation in Illinois at Fox River Country Day School in Elgin.

To commemorate his 50th birthday, the "Ocean Doctor," ocean explorer, sub pilot and conservationist David E. Guggenheim, begins a yearlong journey to share his experiences and lessons from the sea to thousands of students in all 50 U.S. states.

President of 1planet1ocean, he has launched a one-year journey of education, outreach and discovery called "The Ocean Doctor's 50 Years - 50 States - 50 Speeches Expedition."

Announced by Guggenheim on his 50th birthday (Oct. 6, 2008), the expedition will bring, at no charge, speeches about the oceans to schools in all 50 U.S. states, plus territories. By its culmination at the end of 2009, the "expedition" will have reached well over 100 schools and tens of thousands of students.

Guggenheim will share firsthand accounts of his experiences exploring ocean depths, including videos from his experiences piloting a small, one-person mini-sub, bringing important lessons about the oceans, their exploration and conservation.

"Equally important are the lessons I will learn from the students," says Guggenheim, who plans to share his travels in real time via the OceanDoctor.org and 1planet1ocean.org Web sites and using a range of Web 2.0 tools, including Twitter.

"I've worked inside the (Washington, D.C.,) beltway long enough to understand that there's no substitute for getting out to the 'real world' to truly understand what's going on - in this case, what do young people understand and feel about the oceans?"

During the journey, Guggenheim will collect "messages in a bottle" from the visited students to deliver to the Obama administration at the close of the journey so that they may share their thoughts, hopes and dreams for the future of the oceans. The project also will connect students from all of the visited schools so that they may share their experiences with one another.

Billed as "the first social network for the other 70 percent of the planet" (i.e., the oceans), a new Web site, ExploreOurOceans.org, has been launched to allow students to create their own ocean blogs, communicate with one another and even seek advice from volunteer online experts and teachers.

Guggenheim's inspiration for this project comes from the need for better education about ocean issues. Despite a recent trend toward environmental awareness, a serious lack of public "ocean literacy" remains. According to the Ocean Literacy Network, most in the U.S. are unaware or only vaguely aware of environmental problems in the oceans, and most that are aware incorrectly identify the major causes.

Speeches are awarded to the first school requesting them in each state or territory. The expedition is a project of The Ocean Foundation, the project's fiscal sponsor, and is supported by tax-deductible donations to the "Ocean Doctor's 50 Years - 50 States - 50 Speeches Expedition Fund" at The Ocean Foundation.

For details, visit www.oceandoctor.org.

The Fox River Country Day School campus rests on 53 acres of woodland, including a Natural Heritage Landmark and Forested Fen. Visit www.frcds.org for information.