Syllabus- Coastal 2012

Pre-class activity each Saturday (discussed after lunch)

Saturday, September 15

8am: Housekeeping/pretest/ trip forms/introductions
Video: Coastal Systems in the Human Landscape
Slideshow: Invertebrates 1 and 2 w/ Dr. George Shambaugh
Lunch
Fishing Cabin walk
Presentation: Ecology, Interpretation (sample activities)
Presentation: Marine and Estuarine Habitats
Late PM: Trip to Little Harbor* beach to find interpretive moment 'spot' for 10/13

Saturday, September 22
8am- Gather for carpool to EPP
9am: Emerson Point Preserve (Palmetto, Manatee) - walking tour of shell mounds then to observation tower,  w/Aedan Stockdale, Manatee County Preserves Education Assistant; if time, seining on beach walk.
Lunch
Video: Florida's Beach and Dune Systems
Presentations: Mammals, Herptiles, Coastal Uplands
Declaration of Final Project Topic

Saturday, September 29
8am- Gather for carpool to WBCP
8:30am:  Wolf Branch Creek Preserve (Ruskin, Hillsborough) - walking tour of coastal plain and uplands, w/ Rob Heath, Sr. Ecologist, Wildlands Conservation
Lunch
Presentation: Birds 1 and 2
Video: Florida's Nearshore Environments
Submit Final Project Outline- topic, theme, audience (general or age specific, ie. K-3rd gr), method of delivery (brochure, PP, exhibit, hands-on lesson, etc.)

Saturday, October 6
8am- Gather for carpool to CBP
8:30am: Cockroach Bay Preserve (Ruskin, Hillsborough) - wagon tour around restoration/salt flat, then canoe paddle through mangroves to Little Cockroach Bay to seine, w/ Richard Sullivan, Manager, South County Coastal and Nature Preserves
Lunch
Presentation: Saltwater Fish, Coastal Ethics
Video: Florida's Estuaries

Saturday, October 13
8am- Gather for carpool to Little Harbor* for tour presentations
Lunch
PM: Final projects at Camp Bayou

* The 'Little Harbor' (Ruskin) trips will take us to a man-made beach where each student will create an 'interpretive moment'. At the end of the first day of classes, we will all go to scope out a location for your moment and you will have the interim weeks to develop a 'script' to share on the last day of class before the final projects.

Please note that schedule of presentations and videos may change but field trips are fixed.
You must be pre-registered at www.masternaturalist.org to participate in this module.