Island Explorers(grades 3-5) provides students with a critical link to the most significant natural resource in the region: Long Island Sound. Children study “seas and oceans,” but they have only limited opportunity to visit their own coastal environment and see key concepts (such as habitat, ecology, and biodiversity) in a real and vital way. This program takes place in the school classroom and at SoundWaters’ coastal center.

Schedule (total 3.5 contact-hours over 2 days)

Day 1 - SoundWaters visits your school:

• One half-hour Habitats and Marine Ecosystem slide-show presentation and discussion that describes typical coastal habitats, local Long Island Sound species and their relation to a food chain and issues that put the Sound’s natural resources in danger.

• One hour long, hands-on opportunity to interact with multiple invertebrate species (crabs, mollusks, horseshoe crabs, sea stars) and learn how the animals eat, breathe, and survive in intertidal habitats.

Day 2 -Field trip to SoundWaters in Cove Island Park (or other coastal site)

• Two-hour Intertidal Habitat Exploration : Students Explore rocky shore and salt marsh habitats to find coastal LIS inhabitants and review their adaptations to life in tidal zones. The coastal food web is discussed and students learn how Long Island Sound is a resource that should be shared.