Overview

On Wednesday, May 10th, 2023, The International SeaKeepers Society and Colossal Academy collaborated again, but this time out on River Queen on Biscayne Bay. Following up after two classroom visits with the middle schoolers of Colossal Academy, we took 17 of these students out for a floating classroom lesson about water pollution and water quality parameters. Our education team joined the 17 students and 2 chaperones at Pelican Harbor Marina where we boarded River Queen and headed out onto the bay. The water was so still that we were able to see all the way to the bottom of the bay, indicating that the turbidity of the water was low! As we headed out to Little River, we discussed the concepts of runoff and water pollution. We identified many sources of such pollution in Little River and Biscayne Bay, such as fertilizer and construction runoff, litter, and oil pollution. We collected a sample of the water from Little River and the students worked in groups using our EarthEcho kits to test the water for parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen level, pH, and turbidity. All the groups compared their results to measure our precision, and we discussed the implications of results such as a high water temperature and low dissolved oxygen level. To finish up our day we headed over to Pelican Island to do a trash cleanup, where we collected 10 lbs of trash! We were so excited to interact with the Colossal Academy community in a hands-on way out on Biscayne Bay and we look forward to collaborating with them again. We are so grateful to Colossal Academy and to DISCOVERY Yacht River Queen for making it happen!

Outing Goal

The students at Colossal Academy gain a deeper understanding of how water quality is tested and how the parameters tested impact the health of marine life in those ecosystems.

Partner Sites

Colossal Academy

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