Monday, February 01, 2010

Hello to all our lovely Sea School Followers!

Today we are officially switching over to our new blog found here:

http://sanibelseaschool.wordpress.com

And not to worry, all our archived content is moving with us. Hope you have a lovely day!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Sx3 Scavenger Hunt!

The scavenger hunts continue! The Sea School’s winter fund raising event begins with a series of Sea Fandango scavenger hunts. This year, as with last year, Lily & Co. is the Master Sponsor. Each week a clue will be published in the paper and posted online at sanibelseaschool.org . The first person to find the location of the Sea Fandango token will be rewarded with a true treasure from Lily & Co. and the winner is posted online. The prize is a free to the winner and there is no obligation. That’s the spirit of this ocean celebration.
This year Sanibel Sea School’s ocean celebration will culminate on February 20 with the Sea Fandango event at The Community House. Join the fun of searching, finding, getting and giving or just come to Sea Fandango without scavenging! Sanibel Sea School is a 501(c)3 dedicated to marine conservation through experiential education. All proceeds from Sea Fandango will go to scholarships and operating expenses.

We'll be posting our clues on here, but their primary source is the Island Sun and the Islander. Check back soon for this week's clue!


Scavenger Hunt

Clue Number 2 has been found! Check back this week, either on the blog or in the Island Sun for the next clue!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

SX3 Needs Volunteers!

Sanibel Sea School is looking for volunteers! We need enthusiastic, responsible people to help us with things like educational programs, facility upkeep, and writing for our blog. If you’re interested in volunteering, e-mail Leah@sanibelseaschool.org or call (239) 472-8585 to discuss opportunities.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Summer Camp Registration Begins!



We are putting the final touches on our plans for Summer Camp 2010, and we are so excited about all of the fun we have to look forward to! Each week of camp has its own theme and different activities, but there are some things we do each and every week. We go surfing every single day, and on Fridays we have our famous Surf Paddling Competition! There is always artwork, journaling, and macramé jewelry-making. We take beach walks, seine for fish, and go snorkeling all the time. Every Friday, we have a cookout for lunch and a Milk and Cookies Slideshow to look forward to. Below you will find week-specific descriptions of what we’ll be doing at camp this summer. We hope you’ll join us for summer fun and learning in our island ecosystem!

Snappy Shrimp Week (June 21-25)
Ages 4-6

Snappy Shrimp Week is a week for the little ones. We are happy crustaceans that go pop, pop, pop! We will study these tiny sea creatures that can make louder-than-life sounds underwater. We will catch, dissect and even eat shrimp, perform shrimp skits, and learn about underwater sounds in our noisy ocean lab! During Shrimp Week, we will focus on helping our youngest campers get comfortable in the water so they will be prepared for many more fun summers on Sanibel.

Dolphin Week 1 (June 28-July 2)
Ages 6-13

We will spend Dolphin Week learning about one of the world’s smartest creatures – maybe even smarter than humans! We are going to spend lots of time in the water this week. We’ll talk about how dolphins communicate and use echolocation, we’ll divide into pods to play games, and we will go snorkeling and canoeing in Dolphin habitat. We’ll also take a Dolphin Cruise to watch these marvelous marine mammals in their natural surroundings – we will observe how dolphins surf behind boats to save energy and we’ll imagine and write about what dolphins must think when they see dozens of humans watching them!

Coral Reef Week (July 5-9)
Ages 11-15

Older campers will spend Coral Reef Week exploring coral reefs to better understand the intricacies of this fragile ecosystem. We will take a three-night camping trip (yes, we will be roughing it in tents!) to Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys, where we will spend our days boating, snorkeling the reefs, and bonding with friends over the nightly campfire. We’ll learn about the structure of coral, why coral reefs are so important, and how humans affect coral ecosystems. We will also have a visit from a coral reef scientist. Because coral reefs have so many inhabitants, this week will be a great opportunity to see an amazing diversity of marine life!

Sea Turtle Week (July 12-16)
Ages 6-13

This week campers will focus on the sea turtle’s epic journey to adulthood. We will learn about the challenges sea turtles face, like habitat destruction, poaching, flooding and predation. We’ll also study the sea turtle’s life cycle, and how female sea turtles return to their place of birth to lay eggs! During Sea Turtle Week, we will spend lots of time on the beach searching for evidence of these marine reptiles on Sanibel. We’ll have a visit from a turtle scientist, who will take us on a sunrise beach walk to look at real sea turtle nests. If the timing is right, we might even get to help dig a nest! We will also talk about conservation and how to help endangered species. We will make wearable turtle art, and spend afternoons snorkeling in Sargassum seaweed, prime habitat for sea turtle hatchlings!

Manatee Week (July 19-23)
Ages 6-13

Manatee Week campers will learn about the lifestyle and interesting history of this large and charming endangered species. We will learn about their vegetarian diet, the difficulties of being a slow-moving marine mammal, and how scientists study manatees. We’ll also study ways to protect manatees and we will make videos and posters to help educate boaters about manatee protection ideas. There will be plenty of snorkeling in the seagrass beds, and we will take field trips and boat rides to manatee hangouts in hopes of seeing these creatures up close. This week we will also do tie-dyeing – we’ll try to make enough circles on our t-shirts to represent our age, just like manatees have growth rings in their ear bones that help us determine how old they are!

Shark Week (July 26-30)
Ages 6-13

Many people are scared of sharks, but it’s a fact that you are more likely to be killed by debris falling from the sky than you are to be the victim of a shark attack. This week we will overcome our fear of sharks by realizing that they are not vicious killers, but predators on the same level as dolphins, eating for survival. We will do a dissection to study the unique physical features that allow sharks to be successful apex predators, and we will look at the many different species of sharks in the ocean, focusing on the ones we find around Sanibel. We will make a shark piñata, and we will try to catch small sharks for our outdoor tank. To prove to ourselves that we are no longer scared of them, we’ll all get in the water to release our sharks at the end of the week.

Dolphin Week 2 (August 2-6)
Ages 6-13

We will spend Dolphin Week learning about one of the world’s smartest creatures – maybe even smarter than humans! We are going to spend lots of time in the water this week. We’ll talk about how dolphins communicate and use echolocation, we’ll divide into pods to play games, and we will go snorkeling and canoeing in Dolphin habitat. We’ll also take a Dolphin Cruise to watch these marvelous marine mammals in their natural surroundings – we will observe how dolphins surf behind boats to save energy and we’ll imagine and write about what dolphins must think when they see dozens of humans watching them!



Tuna Week (August 9-13)
Ages 6-13

This week we will be scientists who study large pelagic fish. We’ll learn about the amazing Tuna, especially the Bluefin Tuna- a unique fish that can grow up to 14 feet long, weigh 1500 pounds, and accelerate faster than a Porsche! We will talk a little bit about overfishing, and create a “Save the Tuna” mural to raise awareness about this endangered species. We will build a giant Bluefin Tuna blimp, and we’ll take the boat a few miles offshore to dive in and enjoy pelagic fish habitat while getting over our fear of deep water.

Horseshoe Crab Week (August 16-20)
Ages 6-13

During Horseshoe Crab Week, we will pretend to be paleontologists, studying the prehistoric horseshoe crab to find out how they have managed to survive for millions of years. We will search for fossils, track horseshoe crabs on the mudflats, and use scientific gadgets to take salinity readings in their habitat. We will learn about how these creatures reproduce and what’s so cool about their blue blood. At the end of the week, we will write conclusions about why we think these animals have been so successful throughout history. We’ll also talk about other tough survivors, like tilapia, cockroaches, shrimp, and parchment worms. Campers can look forward to mud flat walks and horseshoe crab calligraphy this week!

Eagle Ray Week (August 23-27)
Ages 6-13

Let’s go on an underwater safari with the leopard-patterned Spotted Eagle Ray! We’ll learn about where eagle rays fit into our island ecosystem, and how they manage to find food with such flat mouths. We’ll go snorkeling to look for rays, and we’ll make a giant Spotted Eagle Ray by tying rafts together, then take a ride on it’s back! We will also have a visit from an island local who spends lots of time around these magnificent creatures.

Sea Star Week (August 30-September 3)
Ages 6-13
Sea stars are natural superheroes, performing amazing feats like regenerating their limbs, throwing up their stomachs, and prying open clams! This week, we’ll be the stars of our own skits, make comics about our own ocean superheroes, and have a “sea star splash,” where we will decorate island sidewalks with sea star artwork and facts. We will also make a giant model of a sea star as a collaborative art project. We’ll snorkel in the bay to look for sea stars and their relative, the sea urchin. Then, we’ll dive in to the Gulf of Mexico to study the third echinoderm on Sanibel, the sand dollar!

Our summer camp programs cost $230 per child per week. There is a one time non-refundable registration fee of $50. Upon registration, you will be asked to pay a $50 deposit per child per week, and the remaining amount can be paid at the start of your child's camp program. Inquire about scholarships.

Call (239) 472-8585 or e-mail Liz@sanibelseaschool.org to register. We're looking forward to having fun with your kids this summer!

Friday, January 08, 2010

Where is All the Water?

Take a minute to picture a body of water in your mind. Is it a lake, pond, river or ocean? Not all of us are lucky enough to live near the sea, but nearly everyone walks, bikes, or drives by a body of freshwater every day. Even if we don’t see it on a daily basis, we bathe in it, drink it, and use it for cooking. Because freshwater plays such a prominent role in our lives, it can be easy to forget about the vastness and importance of the salty ocean. It is also difficult to comprehend how little freshwater actually exists on Earth.

NOAA recently published a series of surprising statistics about the distribution of water on our planet. I knew that the ocean was huge, but I was amazed to read that it holds 97 percent of the water on Earth. Only three percent of the water on Earth is fresh, and 69 percent of that is frozen in glaciers and icecaps. An additional portion of the freshwater on our planet is in the atmosphere and underground. Rivers, lakes and ponds may seem common, but they account for less than one percent of our water!

I created a pie chart to help illustrate the distribution of water on Earth.


Next time you drink a refreshing glass of water, keep in mind that accessible freshwater is a very limited commodity on our planet. You can do simple things to conserve this precious resource like turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth, shortening showers, and disposing of chemicals responsibly. You can find more ideas here.

Also, remember that the ocean is huge- making up 70 percent of the Earth’s surface area! Due in part to its large size, it plays an important role in global temperature regulation, and provides food, livelihood, and enjoyment for millions of people. All rivers lead to the sea, so by protecting our freshwater resources we are also protecting the ocean. Because the ocean connects every continent, individual actions can have a worldwide impact. Let’s all do our best to make that impact a positive one.