An estimated 2,000 students made a big splash recently when they participated in an Indian River Lagoon–focused event organized by the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, or ORCA.
The 8th annual A Day in the Life of the Indian River Lagoon took place Oct. 9 at more than 40 waterfront sites from Volusia to Palm Beach counties. Students in grades 4 through 12 joined teachers, scientists, and volunteers to collect data on water quality and wildlife in one of North America’s most biodiverse estuaries.
"A Day in the Life of the Indian River Lagoon is a program that has been inspired by other A Day in the Life programs,” said Missy Weiss, ORCA’s director of citizen science and education. “I personally used to live in New York and participated in A Day in the Life of the Peconic Estuary when I was working for an environmental organization up there. When I moved to Florida, I realized that there really is nothing like that down here. I wanted to be able to give students in elementary, middle, and high school, and even undergraduates, the opportunity to connect with their local waterway the way that we did up in New York through the A Day in the Life program there."
Weiss said the event provides an invaluable opportunity for local students.
"For some of these students, they have never had the opportunity to even step foot into the Indian River Lagoon, or they don't understand that the water body that they drive by or over the bridge is in fact the Indian River Lagoon," she said.
While out in the field, students got a taste of what it’s like to be a marine scientist while learning about the lagoon’s health.
"And so on the same day, year after year, students from Volusia County all the way to Palm Beach County will adopt a sampling location along the Indian River Lagoon,” Weiss said. “On that day, they are tasked with going out and measuring parameters like biological, physical, and chemical, so they can better understand the environmental health of their specific location. Students are measuring things like pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity, alkalinity, but they’re also measuring nutrients like phosphate and nitrite so they can better understand how water quality impacts the health of the lagoon."
Since the event began in 2018, more than 10,000 students, teachers, and citizen scientists have taken part. This year, participants from 37 schools joined with dozens of environmental organizations across the six counties.
On the Treasure Coast, participating schools included Jensen Beach Elementary, Martin County High School, the Pine School, and the Environmental Studies Center in Martin County; Indian River State College, St. Lucie West Centennial High School, and the Manatee Center in St. Lucie County; and Osceola Magnet, Vero Beach High School, Sebastian River High School, and Gifford Middle in Indian River County.
Over the eight years the event has been running, students have encountered a wide array of aquatic life.
"So we could have one site collecting juvenile common snook and common baitfish or even juvenile sheepshead, and then you could have another site a mile down the road collect absolutely nothing,” Weiss said. “That is valuable data in and of itself because there's a reason why some sites are collecting certain creatures and some may only be collecting a comb jelly or nothing at all."
Each school partners with a local environmental organization or professional, such as FAU Harbor Branch, the Florida Oceanographic Society, or the Manatee Center, to help guide the hands-on research.
"What generally happens is that each school is partnered up with a local environmental professional, whether that is a nonprofit, a university, or an agency,” Weiss said. “Those professionals guide or mentor the students through some of these tests. They also provide the chance for students to ask questions so that if they ever decide they want to go into the sciences, here’s this real-life person in front of them that they can ask, ‘Hey, what do you do for a living?’”
Beyond the event, ORCA offers additional opportunities for residents to engage with local waterways.
"ORCA has four citizen science programs and projects that people in the community, people of all ages can participate in,” Weiss said. “A Day in the Life is just one of those opportunities. But we also have ones that are on more regularly, like our One Health Fish Monitoring Project, our Pollution Mapping Citizen Science Project, as well as our Habitat Restoration or Land to Sea."
According to ORCA, the project not only strengthens environmental education but also helps build a long-term picture of lagoon health across the region.