COMMUNICATING THE GEORGIA COAST

EMBODYING THE PLANT OR ANIMAL. Participants were invited to become seaweed moving in the ocean current.  

Alligators, dolphins, ghost crabs, pelicans, live oaks, and wasps - oh my! InterPlay Atlanta, Emory University, and the Georgia Coast Atlas all partnered to offer “Communicating the Science of the Georgia Coast,” a fun- and facts-filled event as part of the 2019 Atlanta Science Festival. 

This two-hour “playshop” took place on Friday, March 15^th at the Little Five Points Community Center Café. From 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Certified InterPlay Leader Ruth Schowalter co-facilitated this highly interactive and energetic science communication workshop for adult and teen participants with her husband — scientist and author Dr. Anthony J. Martin. As a Georgia coast expert, Tony offered “micro-lectures” about its animals, plants, and ecosystems, while Ruth engaged participants in improvisational storytelling and movement-oriented activities that reinforced learning. 

2019 Atlanta Science Festival. InterPlay Atlanta Partnered with Emory University to offer a fun way to communicate facts about our Georgia coast. 

This science communication playshop about the Georgia coast had several goals: 

1) To increase everyone’s familiarity with the environments, fauna, flora of the Georgia coast.

2) To invite everyone to delve into their creativity and find new and powerful ways to communicate factually - but also passionately - about our shorelines. 

3) To learn about how climate change, development, and invasive species are negatively impacting our Georgia coast.

4) To experience a sense of fun and connection with other Atlanta community members while developing ways to advocate for the care of the Georgia coast.

The Georgia Barrier Islands. In the top photo, Tony asked "playshop" participants to illustrate the chain of major islands along the 100 miles of our Georgia coast by asking volunteers to hold signs with the names of each island, and in order (from north to south) along the coast. In the bottom photo, he explains how Sapelo Island is comprised of older Pleistocene sediments (about 40,000 years old) and younger Holocene sediments (only a few thousand years old), personified by our most distinguished and youngest participants, respectively.

Short Tellings. InterPlay magic often happens as people have multiple opportunities to partner for 30-second intervals to speak about different topics. During this 2019 Atlanta Science Festival playshop, participants were given words associated with each of the most important Georgia-coast ecosystems, such as beaches, back-dune meadows, salt marshes, and maritime forests.

Fiddler Crab of the Salt Marsh. Scientists can be silly! Tony's enthusiasm for the animals of the Georgia coast is often demonstrated through his physical caricatures of their behaviors. One of his signature moves is that of a male fiddler crab showing off his big claw. With such an exemplary "role model" as Tony, participants were eager to try out embodying movements of other coastal critters.

Becoming the Animal or Plant. InterPlay is an active creative way to unlock people's kinesthetic wisdom. Giving everyone an opportunity to move and connect new information with movement is an exciting way to learn. It transforms the "classroom" or workshop arena. In these images, you may be witnessing the jaws of an alligator snapping open and shut, or the antennae of snails, such as the salt-marsh periwinkle. 

Small Group Discussion. Participants had the opportunity to discuss some of the environmental harms occurring on the barrier islands as a result of sea-level rise, human development, and invasive species. To connect as a group, they first took turns leading and following a simple repeatable movement. Then after reading factual information about ghost shrimp, sea turtles, American oystercatchers, armadillos, rip-rap, and cabbage palms, they had the chance to tell their own stories related to the Georgia coast or another coast.

One Word. Coming together in a circle at the end of the playshop gives everyone an opportunity to check in and say what they experienced or learned. Invariably, everyone moves when they speak and the others what to repeat their actions. We are connected!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks go to InterPlay co-founders Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry for this active creative way to unlock body wisdom, and our InterPlay Atlanta community.

Deep appreciation to the Atlanta Science Festival folks, Jordan Rose and Meisa Salaita. Thanks also go to the Atlanta Science Festival volunteers Bill and Stephanie for their assistance!

Gratitude to InterPlay Leader-in-Training and co-founder of Sustaining International Sisters (SIS) Canan Arikan who took photos; Visiting Scholar Lin Liu who came early and left late to help set up chairs and break them down; and those regular InterPlayers who came to support us.

Deep bow to my husband and collaborator, Anthony (Tony) Martin, who inspires me every day by his love of learning and enthusiasm as an educator. We have so much fun together!

The photo below shows Ruth Schowalter and Tony Martin on Ossabaw Island in December of 2016, where we went with the Georgia Coast Atlas crew to document the effects of Hurricane Matthew there.