Water Quality Team Alumni

Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Program Associate

Kirby Rootes-Murdy is a Program Associate with the Sustainable Markets team. Working on a variety of programmatic activities in the Seafood Choices program, Rootes-Murdy provides support in the organization and logistics planning of events such at the Seafood Summit and Seafood Champions. He also contributes to SeaWeb’s communication efforts by highlighting emerging topics in marine science and policy. Rootes-Murdy joined the Sustainable Markets team as an Intern in September 2011. Prior to joining SeaWeb full-time, Rootes-Murdy worked as a Seafood retailer at Whole Foods Market.

Rootes-Murdy completed his master's degree in Coastal Environmental Management at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina. While at Duke, Rootes-Murdy wrote his master’s thesis on coastal water quality management in North Carolina and organized an interdisciplinary discussion panel on the U.S. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Market. Prior to graduate school, Rootes-Murdy worked as an Environmental Educator and Community Organizer with CAC AmeriCorps in Knoxville, Tennessee. He graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Religious Studies from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2008.

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Appleby kindergarten spends the day at McCoy Wash

Special to the Times BLYTHE - Felix J. Appleby Elementary kindergartners spent an adventurous day Dec. 3, exploring McCoy Wash on 6th Avenue. While there they engaged in hands-on activities to further support their in-class curriculum. Appleby Elementary recently received a $9,023 grant through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation titled "The Nature of Learning." Funds from this grant will be used to engage children and enrich learning experiences by connecting curriculum to the local natural surroundings. Relevant hands-on activities will be developed and implemented at local natural areas. Later in the year, knowledge from these experiences will be used to restore a section of the new school grounds to a natural landscape where these activities and others can be continued. For the kindergarten class, meshing curriculum with the natural surroundings involved their reading theme, 'Friends Together,' and how this relates to the way land, plants and animals work together to survive in the desert. Along those lines, at a different station students identified unique rock features in the wash while at the same time using these rocks to build words with a short /a/ sound. Instead of chairs or carpet, sand was used to sit on for story time. Then at the art station, students used a variety of unique desert shapes and objects to create personal landscape drawings. Determination also became a lesson for the day when at the end, both students and teachers had to overcome a large sandy hill to make the trek back to the buses. Additional trips for all grade levels are currently being planned with teachers and grant coordinator, Jesse Yonkovich. --------------------------