Misuro, Shane

Shane Misuro has been the lead teacher of the North Penn Marine Science Program since its start in 2007. He wrote the curriculum to the marine science course and work study program, and is the current teacher advisor for the North Penn Marine Society. Over the past 10 years Shane has personally overseen the design, fundraising, building, and maintenance of virtually every type of salt and fresh water aquarium. With his students and co-teacher Shane currently maintains over 500+ gallons of aquariums spread through North Penn High School. The North Penn Marine Science Program has been Growing and evolving for over 12 years. The program now includes a class curriculum, a work study program, and an extracurricular club. In our Marine Science Class students are introduced to the topics of oceanography, marine chemistry, marine ecology, fish science, and fisheries management and become familiar with the theory behind these subjects. The Marine Science Work Study Program was designed to deepen what students learn in Marine Science through its application to fish tank design and aquarium management. Each work study student designs and maintains the 500+ gallons of salt and fresh water aquariums we now have based on their own interests. The systems begin based on each student’s individual research, and then they are built, stocked and maintained throughout the school year. Over the last few years the program has started to emphasize coral keeping and propagation. We now have over 100 gallons of coral propagation takes, and are successfully breading and fragging 10 species of corals. Finally, the North Penn Marine Society is an extracurricular club founded and run by our students. The club meets multiple times a month after school where the members help the school and its teachers set up and maintain aquarium systems as well as fundraise for equipment to improve the marine science program. The club serves as an easy way to spark an interest in fish keeping for every student of North Penn High School. Coral has been looked at as both the holy grail and third rail off anyone interested in aquarium science. Historically reef tanks have been the most difficult tanks to set up and keep, involving the most maintenance and certainly the highest cost per gallon. Given the unique challenges of having to build and maintain coral tanks in a high school, over the past decade we have learned through trial and error how to build a low cost, low maintenance coral tank, that will look great and be able to keep virtually and grow any kind of coral. In “building a coral tank for under $200” you will learn everything you need to know about the requirements a system needs to have to raise healthy coral, and how to most economically and efficiently provide those requirements. We will finish by providing a plan for building 3 separate coral systems (that actually exist and have shown to work the way we say they do) complete with a price per idem breakdown to prove that you can really can build a tank to house all types of coral for under $200.   Programs: Building a Coral Tank for under 200