From The Classroom To the Coral Reef!
By Riley Zoldi
Imagine having the third longest coral reef in the world as your backyard and never visiting it! That’s the reality for some of the children who call Key Largo their home– that is until the Coral Reef Classroom program was developed. Coral Reef Classroom is a grant funded program that gives seventh grade students a chance to visit these beautiful marine environments for free!
It was a beautiful day on the reef!
Coral Reef Classroom is a creatively designed two-part program that bridges the gap between local students and native marine environments. The first part is an introductory class that gives students background knowledge on corals as an animal and as a vital marine habitat, where one of our Marine Science Field Instructors visits the local middle schools and leads a classroom discussion for the entire seventh grade class. The curriculum covers the importance of our local ecosystems, and how they are all connected to each other and the world beyond the island of Key Largo. After learning about these amazing animals and all of the life that can be found there, students are given the opportunity to visit MarineLab and see the coral reefs for themselves.
After the class, the students are ready to head out on the water
The classroom portion of the program is closely followed by a field trip to MarineLab that includes a snorkel at one of our nearby coral reefs. If students can not go on the boats for any reason, they are still invited to join us on the trip and opt for the land-based program, which includes hands-on labs that focus on Invertebrate Diversity and Invertebrate Behavior, so students can still see and experience some of our marine invertebrates up close. Between the classroom discussion and snorkeling expedition, students become reef experts and get the experience of a lifetime
This week Key Largo School (KLS) visited MarineLab for the field trip portion of the Coral Reef Classroom program. Students and their teachers swapped their classroom for the ocean and saw firsthand all of the life found at the coral reefs. Prior to snorkeling, all of the students learned about common snorkeling gear and tips for proper snorkeling etiquette. Once the groups were prepared with gear they set out to the reef on our MarineLab boats. On this particular day, the seventh grade students visited Key Largo Dry Rocks and Grecian Rocks, two of our favorite reefs to visit with groups. The local students snorkeled with ease whether it was their first time in the water or hundredth. Students came back with smiles on their faces and tales of blue water, rainbow fish, and huge barracudas!
Our students loved the reef!
In addition to observing the reef ecosystem, students became scientists for the day by collecting water quality measurements. The seventh graders used refractometers, thermometers, and other scientific instruments to collect data on the salinity, dissolved oxygen, and pH of the water around our coral reefs. Once collected, that data was sent into the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, a citizen science program that monitors water quality around the world.
Our students get to be citizen scientists when they visit, and practice taking water quality data!
MarineLab would like to thank the Ocean Reef Conservation Association for continuing to annually fund this grant-run program since 2018. The money awarded for this program allows the students to visit MarineLab by covering the cost of transportation and substitute teachers. What originally started as a Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary program years ago is ongoing via MarineLab thanks to the support of the Ocean Reef Conservation Association.
From all of the staff at MarineLab, we can’t wait for next year’s Coral Reef Classroom!