As part of its work on coral reef education in Indonesia, the Coastal Resources Center collected and developed new training materials on basic coral reef ecology and management. These materials — suitable for grades 2-6 — were produced in Bahasa Indonesian and used to train teachers to teach with these materials. First, existing educational materials were collected from the government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Next, additional materials developed by other programs in Indonesia, such as Terangi (The Indonesian Coral Reef Foundation), were added to this collection. The project team identified existing gaps in environmental education regarding marine issues. The first of these was the realization that much of the educational material that was available was geared towards children in developed countries. The educational materials developed by the project team helped fill some of these gaps, including making the material more accessible to young children in a developing country such as Indonesia. Educational materials were translated into Bahasa Indonesia and distributed to Reef Check coordinators. These materials include the Reef Check brochure and a bulletin describing threats to Indonesia’s coral reefs, and what students, educators, and scientists can do to help protect and restore Indonesia’s coral reefs.

Reef Check Indonesia worked closely with “Friends of the Reef” an NGO dedicated to coral reef conservation, to hold a drawing competition among elementary school children in Bali. The children were taught about coral reef ecology and conservation and asked to draw pictures of themselves as fish. Hundreds of beautiful drawings from talented children were received.