Sea-to-See      Saturday-at-the-Sea     Saturday-at-the-Sea Summer Camp

Wednesday’s from March through mid-November, twenty-four students and their teachers from the Big Bend region’s schools spend the day at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory participating in a Saturday-at-the-Sea. Through the Saturday-at-the-Sea program, the students are introduced to the rich variety of marine creatures of the Gulf by hands-on experience and investigation. Saturday-at-the-Sea aims to initiate an understanding of the biological relationships these sea creatures have to each other and to their physical environment. Moreover, the program endeavors to awaken in the participants an awareness of the interdependency of people in this region with the sea life in our estuaries and bays. It is our special goal to stimulate in young minds a strong interest in science at this critical time in their educational development.

The Saturday-at-the-Sea program includes a collecting trip to sample marine invertebrates and fishes by trawl net and beach seine, a guided natural history field trip in the salt marsh, and short investigations in the lab classroom. In addition, students collect data, observe microscopic animals and their behaviors, and examine displays and demonstrations in the lab illustrating some of the ways that marine animals carry on the processes of life despite the rigors of the sea. The students see an amazing variety of creatures, from sea anemones to sea horses and even microscopic plankton, and learn about how different species feed, how some drastically change form as they grow, how vulnerable animals defend themselves from predators, how very different kinds of animals fit into the sea's web of existence, and more.

Saturday-at-the-Sea is a component of the FSU Department of Biological Science's
Office of Science Teaching Activities Program (OSTA)