From phytoplankton to sharks, all organisms need energy! Students will take part in an activity that depicts the Trophic Level Pyramid, and discuss how energy is transferred from producers to consumers through the food web.

Scavenger Hunt: Students will be given a list of items to find on the beach in Cedar Key. A few of these items range from shells, feathers, and animal tracks, to "something they've never seen before". Students will be encouraged to discuss what species they believe these items belonged to. They are also required to find a piece of man-made trash to bring back to throw away properly.

During this field lab, students learn the importance of seagrass ecosystems.  Students seine the seagrass bed along Seahorse Key’s back beach, examine and identify marine organisms, and discuss their structural features.  The relationships among water quality, habitat, species diversity, and ecosystem health underlie this module.

During this field lab, students monitor water quality, collect marine animals, and learn about seagrass beds. Through short trawls sampling seagrass habitat, marine specimens are collected. Students closely examine and identify representative organisms. The relationships among water quality, habitat, species diversity, and ecosystem health underlie this module. Remember to study an animal’s features and you will learn how they interact with their surroundings.

Students will dissect a fish with a Biologist! Our staff will work side-by-side with the children introducing them to the biology of a fish, showing them the location of vital organs and their functions. Students will practice their skill by pulling Otoliths, and discussing how to read the "Annuli" to tell the age of the fish.

In this activity, students will use a model construct an unprotected sandy shoreline and make inferences about how it will be affected in a storm surge. Students will then construct a protected shoreline using natural items like seagrass and oysters. They will use the model to compare how different alterations can effectively combat wave action, and why some solutions are better for the ecosystem than others.