From Physical Response to Visitor Engagement: A conversation with aquarium educator Jim DePompei

This week, I talk with Jim DePompei of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in Los Angeles. We talk about visitor engagement during the pandemic and, of course, doing the grunion dance. Grunion are small fish and pretty unremarkable except for this one thing: they dance.

Grunion visit wide, sandy beaches in Southern California and use wavelets to coast as high up the beach as possible. Then they make burrows. Females wriggle backwards into the sand, nestle vertically into the sand, and wait for the males to come twist around them, fertilizing the eggs.

The whole thing is quick but mesmerizing. And Cabrillo Marine Aquarium naturalists teach about these quirky fish, among other natural wonders, using a dance. Cabrillo teachers don’t stop there – they use broad, dance-like sequences in a call-and-response pattern that they call do-it-do-it.

The grunion dance and the other do-it-do-its at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium are examples of what language educators call total physical response. TPR is a great strategy for informal educators to incorporate into their lessons – so I’ve put up a blog post here.

Enjoy this week’s conversation with Jim DePompei. As always, I would love to hear back from you about what you thought!