For the past 18 years, Woodland Park Middle School has offered students the opportunity to snorkel amongst the coral reefs in the Florida Keys through Marine Lab. This spring break, the second-ever high school-level Marine Lab trip happened in conjunction with the AP Environmental Science class.

Caleb Kettler, the lead chaperone for the high school trip, has been doing Marine Lab trips with students since the program started in 2008.

“Providing a marine-based experience for students in Woodland Park has been invaluable to so many students over the years,” Kettler said. “I truly believe it is a life-changing experience.”

Each day, along with an instructor, students would boat out to two different snorkeling sites, conduct labs and participate in discussions while learning about these environments. They had a chance to see a wide variety of wildlife, including ospreys, roseate spoonbills, manta rays, seahorses, sharks and even an octopus.

The Marine Lab trip is an educational camp, providing hands-on experience with marine life in Florida, where participants learn how it’s affected by things like rising temperatures. A smaller group of six students headed out to Key Largo, where they hiked through the Everglades before heading out to Marine Lab. During their time at Marine Lab, the students would snorkel through different ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and coral reefs.

The students had an amazing experience getting close to each other and their instructor Alexis Carrasquillo, they said.

“I was talking with a couple of the other instructors and you guys are some of the best groups we have had. For one, you guys respect us and do well in a classroom. And we can tell that you guys are very interested in the state of the world and marine science. You’re interested in learning, which not every school that comes here does,” Carrasquillo said.

Over the last 20 years roughly 90% of the coral reefs in Florida have died. Marine Lab is an amazing experience for kids to get educated on issues, such as major bleaching issues from heat in our planet’s coral reefs. One of the biggest ways to help these ecosystems is through spreading awareness and educating people. Marine Lab gets groups from all around the country, welcoming between 5,000 and 7,500 students each year.

“Out on the boats they are able to combine what they learn in the classroom with what they’re seeing in real life, which makes more of a lasting impact on students tying those two things together,” Carrasquillo said. “Especially with the current state of the world, we want students to learn about how it’s declining and how they can help for the future of marine science.”

As Woodland Park School District moves closer to its 20th year conducting Marine Lab trips, teachers Ryan Schultz and Lindsey Strelec will be heading the program as the lead chaperones for the middle school group, which normally gets around 18 students each year.