Floating Classroom with Arcola Lake Elementary and Blue Scholars Initiative
DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen
Miami, Florida
April 30, 2024
Overview
On Tuesday, April 30th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society and Blue Scholars Initiative hosted a floating classroom with 13 4th and 5th-grade students and 3 educators from Arcola Lake Elementary aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen in Biscayne Bay. We met our students and chaperones at Bill Bird Marina and made our way through Biscayne Bay to Oleta River State Park while discussing the coastal ecology of South Florida, as well as how the local watershed functions and results in different types of pollution in the bay. Students had the opportunity to visually explore seagrass and mangrove ecosystems, and even got to see some small seagrass critters like a juvenile Florida Horse Conch and marine hermit crabs up close! Following our critter exploration, we finished up our floating classroom by discussing the impacts of mangrove trees and their ability to grow in waters with varying water levels and salinity conditions with partner Martin Keeley from Mangrove Education. Martin led students through a short activity demonstrating the differences between salt and freshwater to enhance our closing discussion.
Outing Goal
The students of Arcola Lake Elementary were a pleasure to work with and we are happy to be able to take another group of local students out on the water with our partners at Blue Scholars Initiative and the help of our trusty D/Y River Queen. We hope that these students were able to leave the floating classroom with a better understanding of how pollution impacts our waterways and how we can prevent different types of pollution in our everyday lives. We had a great time hosting Arcola Lake Elementary and we hope to work with them and other Miami-Dade County Public Schools more in the future!
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