Floating Classroom with Global Field Academy

On the morning of October 21, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom experience with 25 students and 10 educators from Global Field Academy aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen out of FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus. We met our group of energetic students at the docks before climbing aboard and heading out for an amazing day on the Bay. Our captain gave a quick safety briefing before our team began our lesson for the day with an in-depth talk about the coastal ecology of South Florida, to include the four major habitats of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, and kelp forests. Our team went into even further detail than usual as the students came ready for the day asking many questions and even recognizing some advanced concepts like the nature of limestone and why it is so important for life in Florida. Following this lesson, we dove into some water quality testing using our Earth Echo International Water Quality Testing kits to test the temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and turbidity of the Bay. Following our recent trend, we saw excellent parameters, with extremely high dissolved oxygen levels in our waters. We ended our day with a quick island cleanup at Sandspur Island, removing 15 pounds in just 20 minutes of work. We give a huge thank you to River Queen for a fantastic day on the water, and to the students and team of Global Field Academy for joining us!