Floating Classroom with HEARTS Homeschool Co-Op

On the morning of January 21, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom experience with 24 students and 11 educators from the HEARTS Homeschool Group on board DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen. To start our day, we met with the students and parents at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus and heard from Captain JD on a quick safety briefing before we headed out into Biscayne Bay. Our Educational Outreach Manager, Jack, led a discussion centered on the history of Florida’s coastal ecosystems and explored the intricacies of four major coastal ecosystems including coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows, and kelp forests. Our students seemed especially interested in coral reefs, easily able to answer any questions we threw at them! Before we moved on to our next activity, we were lucky enough to be visited by a passing dolphin. Our students and educators had the chance to see one of these amazing animals in their natural habitat for the first time, making this a day to remember for everyone. We then moved onto our next activity, where our Educational Outreach Assistant, Soline, helped to lead water quality testing in small groups using our Earth Echo Water Challenge Kits. We saw much improved dissolved oxygen levels and significantly lower temperatures compared to our previous floating classroom. To finish our day, we completed a short island cleanup at Sandspur Island where in just twenty minutes our students managed to collect 30 pounds of trash including a fully intact crab trap! We give a huge thanks to the students and parents of HEARTS Homeschool for their hard work, and to the team of D/V River Queen for a fantastic day on the water!