NAVAJO NATION (KRQE) – A Navajo high school teacher is bringing the ocean to the New Mexico desert. Kim Etsitty is a science teacher at a school north of Gallup and one of a just few a people chosen for a prestigious fellowship, studying the ocean floor. For months she's been sharing what she's learned with her students. "I think one thing that we forget as educators is sharing the natural world as our first classroom too," said Kim Etsitty, a Navajo Pine High School science teacher. As an Indigenous woman, she makes sure to incorporate Navajo teachings into her lessons. "There's a lot of real rich knowledge that is there that we don't really incorporate in Western science. So I think a lot of that has really pushed me to tell those stories, to make science more meaningful," continued Etsitty. Last April, Etsitty got the opportunity of a lifetime joining doctor Robert Ballard, best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, and other scientists on the Nautilus Exploration Program. "So there was multiple objectives. One was to map the sea floor for the first time," exclaimed Etsitty. Just 5% of earth's oceans have been explored. Etsitty studied under water mountains, along with plant and sea life near Palau in the western Pacific Ocean. And her students joined in, too. "The whole school Zoom'ed in with me on the ship. And, you know, that was really cool that they got to see me on the ship got to show them around and they got to ask questions," shared Etsitty. Students, learning about their discoveries in real time, " I got to show them like what I did on a more personal level on the ship. And then also kind of just showing them like more pictures and then also sharing the importance of the information that we found," said Etsitty. Etsitty says she hopes students get a new appreciation for the world around them. While her work on the Nautilus ended in November, Etsitty is continuing to partner with NASA's space grant program to help bring telescopes to schools in the Navajo Nation. Teachers and students who are interested in the program that Etsitty took part in can submit applications to the Ocean Exploration Trust in the fall. The next expedition is in 2026.