”LIFE” Full of Learning Experience for St. Johns County Students

PONTE VEDRA – This week seventh grade students from Sebastian Middle School held class in a unique location – the great outdoors, at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) program, the students experienced science education first-hand at one of Northeast Florida’s most pristine estuarine systems.

“The LIFE program engages students with opportunities to conduct research and learn fundamental science concepts in an outdoor environment,” said DEP’s LIFE Director Greg Ira. “With every field lab students develop essential skills in science and many also develop a greater appreciation for these unique environments.”

The St. Johns County LIFE participants conducted field labs demonstrating the connection of living and nonliving factors and their influence on the estuarine environment. During the field experience, students were asked to sample water quality, analyze their observations, identify salt marsh vegetation and collect aquatic life to observe under a microscope. The field labs were taught by Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve staff and volunteers, DEP Northeast District Staff and St. Johns County Staff. Each lab is aligned to Florida’s Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.

Since 2004, the LIFE Program has brought more than 4,000 future scientists and stewards outdoors and into Florida’s award winning state parks by participating in the program. The LIFE Program network is a series of field-based, environmental-science education programs around the state. Each of the eleven existing LIFE Program sites is a partnership between DEP and a local school district. The goal of each LIFE program site is increased student achievement and teacher professional development in science.

The Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR) LIFE Program is a partnership between GTM NERR and the St. Johns County School District. The Program targets seventh grade students in the district and involves two separate field days, one each semester. Each field day involves three distinct field labs led by GTM Reserve staff and assisted by seventh grade teachers, DEP staff, and volunteers. Field sites include the Guana River Marsh Aquatic Preserve and the GTM NERR Guana Beach. Support for the LIFE Program at GTM NERR comes from Florida Sea Grant, the Friends of GTM Reserve and Waste Management.

For more information on the LIFE program, visit www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/ed/.