Floating Classroom with Pompano Beach Public Library

Overview

On Wednesday, July 24th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a Floating Classroom with Pompano Beach Public Library attended by 13 middle and high school students and 5 chaperones aboard DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen in Biscayne Bay. We met the students and educators at Bill Bird Marina where we started off the day by quietly observing the nest of baby green herons in a tree near the floating dock. Once we boarded DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen, we made our way into Biscayne Bay while we discussed the local watershed and ecosystems, what we can do to help keep them clean, as well as the general ecology of South Florida and its waterways! Following this talk, students were able to put their knowledge to the test by helping us use our Earth Echo Kits to conduct tests on the water quality of the Bay, including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity in order to make an assessment on how healthy Biscayne Bay’s waters are. Our students got to illustrate their knowledge on waterways’ connectivity and how various sources of pollution and other human interactions could have caused the results that we saw, as well as explained how different students may have gotten different results from one another. 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 12 pounds of marine debris! Following a discussion of what we found, we finished the floating classroom by discussing ways we can reduce our negative impacts on the Bay, 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 Pompano Beach Library and DISCOVERY Vessel River Queen for a great day on the water!