provided to Santiva Chronicle
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation recently awarded the Sanibel Sea School a grant for an exciting new program called, “A Taste of Salt.” As part of the Community Foundation’s 2020 Community Impact Grants, Sanibel Sea School received funding to share the ocean with underserved children in Southwest Florida through a mobile science laboratory.
“Our mobile science lab will bring that technology to the field. Our mobile science lab can help us bring the ocean and technology to students who don’t get a chance to experience either,” said Dr. Bruce Neill, co-founder of the Sanibel Sea School.
This mobile lab will expose students to marine science and technology, independent of their location. The program, A Taste of Salt, will be a transportable lab that will share the ocean with underprivileged students and ultimately provide the field trips they crave.
A Taste of Salt will help facilitate education in two ways – outdoor education in the field and on-the-go, hands-on education at public schools. The beach-side use of the lab will allow students to dip their toes in the ocean, smell the stinky fish, and taste the salty air, then step into a technologically appropriate science laboratory.
“Experiential education is a way to immerse people in education to stimulate the senses as well as the mind. For much of what we experience in nature, we need assistance – in particular microscopy,” he said.
The lab will also travel to schools for immersive, STEM-based marine science education, and alleviate the transportation barrier than many students face.
“We need to be able to explore what is in a drop of sea water – that ultimately supports life on this planet. We need to be able to see the tiny pores that allow plants to breathe. We need just a small bit of technology to fully explore the natural world that surrounds us,” he added.
Sanibel Sea School will begin constructing the laboratory immediately. Neill and the education team will begin working with science teachers in Lee County to create a supplemental marine science curriculum that will be utilized in field trips with the mobile science lab. Implementation of this program scheduled for late-Spring.
About Sanibel Sea School
Part of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Family, Sanibel Sea School’s mission is to improve the ocean’s future, one person at a time.
About the Southwest Florida Community Foundation
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, founded in 1976, cultivates regional change for the common good through collective leadership, social innovation and philanthropy to address the evolving community needs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glades counties. The Foundation partners with individuals, families and corporations who have created more than 400 philanthropic funds. Thanks to them, the Foundation invested $7.7 million in grants and programs to the community. With assets of $134.9 million, it has provided $85 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves since inception. The Foundation is the backbone organization for the regional FutureMakers Coalition and Lee County’s Sustainability Plan. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s regional headquarters are now located in the historic ACL Train Depot at Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, with a satellite office located in LaBelle (Hendry County). For more information, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com