Whales and Dolphins

The project "Whales and Dolphins" is developed for group 5 and teaches the children all about dolphins and other sea life in an adventurous way.
The package is meant for a class with a maximum of 35 students and consists of:

• Education material good for at least 6 lessons and parted by three 
  chapters: Mammals, Fish and the Bottlenose Dolphin
• A lesson from a dolphin trainer who will come to the school.
• Booklets for the students with fun information and tasks.
• A teacher's guide
• A visit to the Curaçao Sea Aquarium including the transport and guides from
  the Sea Aquarium. The children will participate in a program with a dolphin- and
  Sea Lion show and will play different fun and educational games.

The costs for the package are Naf. 500,- per class. While this is minimal for the offered package, this is still too much money for a lot of local schools. In order to be able to give these children the package the Dolphin Academy made an appeal to all the companies of Curaçao. They were and are looking for companies that want to "adopt" a class from a school in their neighborhood for the project "Whales and Dolphins". Of course the participating companies will be rewarded for their goodwill with something very special!!

For every sponsored class the company receives a business outing for 10 co-workers. This in the form of a morning or afternoon at the Dolphin Academy, with an interactive Dolphin Encounter (normally $79,- p.p.), a Dolphin Training Demonstration and an educational dolphin lesson from a dolphin trainer. The more classes a company sponsors the more employees will be welcomed at the Dolphin Academy! In this way the Dolphin Academy hopes to establish a unique cooperation between the companies, the Curaçao sea life and the employees of the future.

The first school year of the project proved to be very successful. In cooperation with KPMG, Royal Resorts, Avila Beach and the Lodge Igualidad over 400 students were able to follow the project. Participating schools were the Don Sarto School, Skol San Jose, Skol Angela Jessurun, Kolegio San Dominiko,

Krijtschool, Kolegio Chaya Willems, Martin Luther Kingschool, Prins Bernardschool, Nechi Pieters College and the Oranje School. The Prinses Margrietschool, Johan van Wallbeekschool and Pipita participated as pilot schools.

The students were very enthusiastic and inquisitive which lead to many proud teachers and guardians. As a thank-you for the sponsorship of the project sponsors received a creative self-made gift from "their" students.
This of course didn't mean the end of the project, the first year was just the beginning. For the next school year a project for group 6 has been developed and the project for group 7 is already in progress.

Sponsor wise the new school year looks promising with big sponsorships from the Hilton Hotel and the RBTT Bank. This means that at least 8 schools will be able to participate in the coming school year. Although promising, this number can always be improved and therefore the Dolphin Academy is still looking for more companies to adopt their own Curaçao school class.