120 fourth grade students and teachers from Pasadena, California's Washington Accelerated Elementary School journeyed to the REEF at UCSB as guests of the Moorea Coral Reef LTER on March 13th, 2012. The fourth graders enjoyed research presentations by MCR LTER gradute students Shirley Han, Jessica Nielsen and Sammy Davis and participated in three hands-on, group learning activities. Students examined and compared tropical and local animals maintained in the REEF touch tanks, explored the beach at Campus Point and participated in a game designed and led by MCR LTER graduate student Stella Swanson that was designed to teach the students about the importance of foundation species (giant kelp in the case of the local Santa Barbara Channel ecosystem and corals in the case of the coral reef ecosystem around Moorea) to other species within an ecosystem. For more information about the REEF, click here.