Girls Scouts Adventures
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A nationally selected group of six Senior Girl Scouts learned about marine science and conservation, exploration and submerged cultural resources while snorkeling, diving and exploring the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The girls participated in lectures about marine invertebrates, maritime heritage, astronomy, and reef fish identification; participated in a plankton tow; snorkeled the mangroves and sea grass beds; and went on eight dives, including two wreck dives and a night dive. The girls learned extensively about underwater habitat technology, and got to experience it in person when they visited to the Aquarius underwater habitat where they had the opportunity to interact with the scientists on the current mission researching the role of Hydrodynamics in Determining Nutrient Fluxes to Conch Reef.
The Aquarius project gives girls the opportunity to investigate coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass beds and shipwrecks protected in the sanctuary, including a SCUBA dive to the National Undersea Research Center's underwater Aquarius habitat to interact with scientists. Each participating Girl Scout will devise an outreach plan for taking what they learned home to their schools, Girl Scout councils and communities. Below are excepts from the Mission Logs written by the Girl Scouts during their week in Key Largo, Florida for the 2005 Aquarius Project. The complete journal entries are below.
Karen, age 15, Pennsylvania “I’m so excited to finally be here at the MarineLab for Aquarius Project 2005. I am with five other girls and our three leaders to spend a week scuba diving and learning about various science subjects.”
Ruthie, age 18, Maine “We discussed hopes and fears for the trip and gave suggestions to each other on how to accomplish and overcome the. Then we went to a talk given by Billy Causey, the Superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary He told us about the protection, management, and zoning of coral reefs in the sanctuary.”
Kelly, age 16, Maryland “When we surface, I felt like I was in a dream, There we were, in a dark ocean, clinging to a line watching a row of eerily lit glow sticks bobbing up and down with each person. Above there was partial cloud cover and heat lightning strobes the sky with magnificent display to two sides of us.”
Day Four – Saturday, July 16 “Today we went diving at a reef called French Reef and it was amazing. The reef was like going through a grocery store because the reef looked like it had aisles.”
Liz, age 17, Maryland “Today we visited Aquarius, and it was completely amazing. Speeding across the waves on a NOAA boat towards the 30 ft life support buoy that marks the spot where Aquarius resides was nothing sort of awe-inspiring.”
Becca, age 15, Florida “On our way back to the docks we learned about some tools scientists use. We learned how clear the water was, the salt levels, and did a plankton tow and looked at them under a micro viewer, which doesn’t work as well as a microscope.” The Aquarius project is sponsored by NOAA, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and Girl Scouts of the USA. Click here for more information on past Aquarius Projects. |
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