$48,000 Environmental Grant awarded to
AIMS/Broward County Public Schools

Recently, President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush signed an agreement that will reserve water for environmental restoration. This agreement is a condition under state law, to receive federal money to pay for an $8 billion project that restores, protects, and preserves the water resources of central and southern Florida and the Everglades. This plan also intends to educate the community about Everglades restoration. A grant partnership has now been formed between the American Institute of Marine Studies (AIMS), Broward County Schools and the Florida Department of Education (FDOE). South Broward High School’s Maritime Magnet Program applied for this grant from the FDOE and Florida State University's Center for Civic Education and Service that requires a cash match from an organization that cares about the environment and education. This community/higher education/school partnership (CHESP) grant engages students of all ages in collaborative service learning that addresses Florida's educational and community needs.

Reviewers in Tallahassee unanimously accepted the CHESP proposal. The students will now engage in scientific service learning while camping in tents in remote areas of our State. These locations include Lake Kissimmee, Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, Indian River Lagoon, Biscayne Bay,

Shark River Valley and Taylor Slough, Big Cypress, Florida Bay, the Florida Reef Tract including the Dry Tortugas. This AIMS funded educational program is called simply, the Watershed Project. AIMS   and South Broward High School’s Marine Science Magnet will work with middle schools, two Florida Universities, and numerous organizations to conduct a service learning program.  Objectives include: 1) Students teaching other students about important environmental issues relating to ecology and the Southern Florida watershed. 2) 100 volunteer hours (for each of the 24 participants) in six parks within the Southern Florida watershed. They will monitor/report environmental conditions of the park, perform community service activities, and share environmental information with scientists on the Internet from around the world through an innovative environmental data-collecting program called GLOBE.

Through this project, the students who are enrolled in Florida International University’s Florida Ecology Class will teach high school (South Broward) and middle school students about Florida ecology and the Southern Florida Watershed. They will learn from the FIU students and apply that knowledge in presentations to campers in the parks in the evening. Those magnet middle schools are New River Middle (Marine Science Magnet), and Sawgrass Middle (Environmental Science Magnet).  Through the course of a year, the students will visit six different State Parks to provide volunteer services and to master Sunshine State Standards for College, High School and Middle School science. The six parks are located within the Southern Florida Watershed and together tell a story of the fragile ecosystems encountered as water flows from its head waters at Lake Kissimmee to its Florida Bay destination and onward, out to join the conglomerate mixing of the Florida Current.

Experiential learning will take place while the students perform eighteen hours of community service within each park. It is our goal to provide over 3024 volunteer hours of service to six parks located in the watershed.  As environmental stewards of the parks, the participating students will perform community service projects, such as a beach or grounds clean up or exotic tree removal. They will also invite the campground visitors to participate in an evening PowerPoint presentation about the unique habitats found in the respective parks and will be given in the outdoors amphitheater. The Florida Center for Environmental Studies (Florida Atlantic University) based at Riverwoods Field Laboratory on the Kissimmee River  <# > will train teachers and students in the “Discover a Watershed” curriculum. They will teach them to use South Florida Water Management District’s EMPACT (Watershed) web site <#>, which allows them to digitally experience the unique ecosystems formed by the water as it journeys through the watershed.

This is an opportunity for higher education and K-12 students to communicate their experiences and knowledge to one another using technology and partnerships while allowing them to give back to the community what they have so graciously received. AIMS is dedicated to letting kids just be themselves in unique outdoor settings which foster character building adventures.