The James Logan Courier

By Rick LaPlante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

Alvarado Elementary School teacher Kim Pratt has been selected to represent educators - and communicate the importance of teaching children about the environment - in a video by the production company that will release the movie “Nim’s Island” this spring.

Ms. Pratt will travel to Monterey on Monday (March 3) to be part of a live webcast from the research vessel Fulmer. The webcast, “Nim’s Island Adventure,” will explain that although Nim's Island isn’t real, students should be aware of special places in the ocean called national marine sanctuaries and be good stewards of the environment.

Ms. Pratt, who has twice represented the New Haven Unified School District as a “Teacher at Sea” onboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessels, will speak about the environmental work that she and other teachers have done with students at Alvarado and elsewhere in the District. She also will bring questions from Alvarado students to experts on the Fulmer.

The webcast, scheduled from 12:40 to 1 p.m., is being produced by Walden Media, the production company for “Nim’s Island,” in conjunction with the NOAA’s national marine sanctuary program and the science education program “Immersion Presents.” It can be accessed at www.oceanslive.org and www.immersionpresents.org and will be shown in the cafeteria at Alvarado Elementary.

“Nim’s Island,” scheduled for release in April, is an adventure-fantasy based on the book by Wendy Orr. Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler star in the film, which chronicles the exploits of a young girl living a high-tech Robinson Crusoe existence on an unspoiled tropical island. Her father is a marine scientist, and her best friends are a motherly sea lion, a rambunctious iguana and a sea turtle.