Meeting Abstract
Yoga has traditionally been practiced for physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Here, we describe our new oyster storytelling yoga efforts to help children and adults learn about estuarine ecology, all while being engaged and physically active. Our goal is to share with children the importance and challenges faced by oysters and oyster reefs through the principles of good storytelling, with the students participating in large muscle movement and calming activities with yoga-style affirmations. Our strategy is to have participants begin their journey onshore with breathing (mosquito breath) and stretching (calm water and shell midden) poses, and then travel by boat (traditional yoga: boat pose) to an oyster reef after traversing the crests and troughs of waves (traditional yoga: cat and cow poses), and then meet some of the amazing biodiversity on and around the oyster reefs (modified yoga poses: crabs, wading birds, dolphin, etc.). Our planned deliverable is a set of large, two-sided cards with a photograph of each pose facing the audience and the storytelling text plus step-by-step instructions for poses on the side facing the educator. Versions have been tested in the field with K-12 educators and community members ranging in age from 2 – 82. We consider this to be a novel, exciting way to share STEM content on estuaries and biodiversity with children and adults. Funding for this project was provided by NSF CNH grant #1617374.
