Clearwater Marine Aquarium to Give Students from Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf a Field Trip to Remember
Kids to Work With and Learn from Deaf Dolphin Panama
WHAT: About 20 kids from the Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf in Clearwater will visit Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) for a field trip like no other. Our trainers have enjoyed working with these kids so much, they have planned a field trip especially tailored to them and their needs. For the first time, the students will be working with Panama—a dolphin we have recently learned is deaf. Through the new “Panama’s Pod” Program, trainers will share Panama’s story and how they can relate to her.
Then, students will be broken into three groups and each group will be assigned a specific hand signal for one of Panama’s behaviors. Kids will then trace their assigned hand signal on construction paper and cut them out. The groups will then practice the signal together and perform the hand signal they’ve learned with Panama. As a special surprise, pictures of the kids with Panama will be taken and printed out for every child to take home that day. Their photos will be glued next to the cut out of the hand signals.
WHEN: Friday, December 4 at 10 a.m.
WHERE: Clearwater Marine Aquarium (located at 249 Windward Passage)
BACKGROUND ON PANAMA:
After almost nine years of living at CMA, we recently discovered Panama is deaf. What’s amazing about this discovery is that she has been successfully able to learn a wide variety of medical, cognitive and high-energy behaviors, despite trainers using whistles during training sessions that Panama couldn’t even hear. She may have learned all of her behaviors by paying close attention to the trainers’ “whistle-faces,” instead of listening to the actual whistle itself to know when she performed a behavior correctly. She learned her behaviors so well that, if it were not for the hearing test results, her trainers would have never known she couldn’t hear the whistle cues. Panama is our oldest and biggest dolphin. She is in her mid 30’s, weighs 450 pounds and eats 18 pounds of fish a day. She is also Winter’s adopted mom and the two live in the same pool. She stranded in October 2000 near Panama City, Florida.
BACKGROUND ON THE BLOSSOM MONTESSORI SCHOOL:
Founded in 2003 by Julie Rutenberg, Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf educates not only deaf and hard of hearing students, but children with deaf family members as well. As the only deaf Montessori school in Florida and one of only two deaf Montessori schools in the U.S., it’s a prototype for a new standard of deaf education for children ages 3 through 15. Instead of grade levels, children are grouped by age groupings. Teachers and pupils communicate through American Sign Language and spoken English. Tampa Bay is home to the fourth largest deaf population in the United States. Blossom not only serves children from Pinellas County, but also Hillsborough, Pasco, and Hernando counties as well.
Related articles:
- A Field Trip to Remember… CMA Trainers Give Students from Blossom Montessori School for the...
- CMA and Scholastic Team Up CMA and Scholastic Team Up for Historic Virtual Field Trip...
- Panama Bows High Five Nose Push Platform Beaching Release Tail Slaps...
- Winter and Panama – Swimming Pec to Pec Pec to Pec 1 Pec to Pec 2 Pec to...
- Winter’s Webcast Thousands Tune-In for Live Webcast on Winter at CMA Wednesday,...
