Floating Classroom w/ Forest Quest Homeschool
DISCOVERY Yacht River Queen
Miami, Florida
August 15, 2024
Overview
On Thursday, August 16th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom with 15 students and 7 chaperones from Forest Quest Homeschool aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen in Biscayne Bay. Once we boarded DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen, we made our way out into the bay while we discussed the local watershed and ecosystems, the history of South Florida’s watershed, as well as the general ecology of the waterway. We were then lucky enough to get a visit from a pod of five Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins, who made several passes around the boat and gave us a great show as they played in the wake and seagrass beds around the boat. Following this talk and dolphin visit, students were able to test their water quality knowledge by helping us use our Earth Echo Kits to conduct analysis on the water quality of the Bay, including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. Our students got to illustrate their knowledge and explain why we might have seen certain readings, including a high dissolved oxygen level observed by all of our students. Following our water quality talk and activities, we made our way to Sandspur Island where our students and educators participated in a beach cleanup. In just thirty minutes, we managed to collect more than 24 pounds of marine debris! Following a discussion of what we found, we finished the floating classroom by discussing some of the strangest as well as most common trash we found, and how we can better reduce, reuse, and recycle common plastics and microplastics in our everyday lives. We were extremely impressed by our students’ knowledge and initiative throughout the day and give a huge thanks to the Forest Quest Homeschool students and educators, D/V River Queen, and the dolphins of Biscayne Bay for a great day!
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