Sea Turtles: Sanibel's Silent Night Visitors

Sanibel's beaches provide excellent nesting habitats for these amazing and precious sea creatures. San Carlos bay also offers a rich environment that allows juveniles to grow and flourish. We will explore this local resident, and perhaps even see the tracks and nest of a nesting female.

Sea Grass Ecosystems

The back bay regions of Sanibel support rich sea grass communities. Such communities are vital to the reproduction and survival to many marine organisms. We will learn about sea grass beds, and wade in them to see first-hand some of their inhabitants.

Shell Diversity: The Bivalves

Mollusks are second only to insects in the number of species on this planet. And, bivalve mollusks are the most diverse of the mollusks. We will learn a bit about them, and then collect specimens from the beach to identify them.

Molluscan Diversity: The Gastropods

The gastropod mollusks are what we think of a snail-shaped mollusks. The gastropods found on Sanibel are as rich as anywhere in the United States. We will learn about their biology and how to identify some of our local shells.

Barrier Island Ecology

Sanibel is a barrier island. Barrier islands are unique environments in their formation as well as the types of biological diversity they support. We will learn about how Sanibel was formed and how it is unique as an ecologically thriving barrier island.

The Moon and Tides: How Gravity Pulls Water

The lunar cycle is the basis of our calendar, but many times we tend to overlook its effects on the living inhabitants of Planet Earth. Here we will learn about lunar cycles and how the moon's gravitational pull shapes the oceans on the planet causing tides.

Wildlife Rehabilitation: Giving Wildlife a Hand

All too often, interactions between humans and wildlife leaves wildlife injured, sick or harmed. Through a local Sanibel agency, CROW (Center for Rehabilitation of Wildlife), we will learn how animals are helped and ultimately re-introduced into the wild.

Mangroves: The Trees of the Sea

Mangroves are trees that specially adapted to living in salt water. They provide shelter and habitat to many species of marine and terrestrial wildlife. We will better understand how mangroves grow in salt water and the rich communities they support.

Sand Fleas and Coquinas: Life on the Edge

Two of our local residents make a living in the fascinating community where the gulf waves lap against Sanibel?s beaches. We will explore this community and learn about these fun little creatures that spend their lives chasing waves under our feet.

Wading Birds: How to make a Living on Stilts

Birds are amazing, diverse creatures. Some have evolved ways to make a living on stilts - long legs that allow them to wade in water and not get their feathers wet. Sanibel has a rich wading bird community and we will observe and learn about some of the most common.

Migratory Birds: Passerine Birds (The Perching Birds)

The small birds you commonly see are called passerine birds - they have a passerine, or perching foot structure. Sanibel has a diverse assemblage of passerine birds. We will observe these and learn some about some of the most commonly encountered species.

Red Tide: The Effects of Humans on Water Quality

Caused by a naturally occurring single-celled organism, red-tide kills marine life and is occurring more frequently as humans affect water quality. This unit explores the causes and effects of red-tides and shows how we can stem the occurrence of this deadly phenomenon.

Predatory Birds of the Sea

Several species of (predatory) birds are sea specialists. They consume fish caught in a variety of methods - including stealing the from other birds. We will learn about these and observe their feeding habits in action.

Freshwater Habitats on Sanibel: Packing in Biodiversity

One of the limiting factors for animals and plants on a barrier island is fresh water for drinking. Sanibel is blessed with a supply of fresh water. We will learn about Sanibel's freshwater habitats and how they affect the local biodiversity.

Biodiversity: What Does it Mean, Why Do We Bother?

Biodiversity is a term used to describe how many different kinds of plants and animals are in a given region or habitat. We will learn about this term, its applications and practice calculating biodiversity in different habitats on Sanibel.

The Calusa: The Original Islanders

Many years before European settlers arrived on Sanibel, the Calusa Indians lived here. We will learn about these hardy warriors and how they influenced the island, and a bit about what we think their lives were like.

Shell Mounds: The Role of Ancient Garbage Dumps

Want to live in a garbage dump? Surprisingly, many things do. Ancient garbage dumps are important environments on barrier islands; they provide habitats for plants and animals, and they allow us to study how earlier people lived. We can also learn how to best control our garbage.

Our Role: How do we Live on Sanibel to Step Lightly on the Environment?

Living on an island is a challenge. We must pay special attention to our environment because it is a small piece of land surrounded by water. By living in a way that makes our impact small, we can learn how to live so that the natural environment is conserved.

Fish: The Most Successful of Vertebrates

What's not to like about fish? They are more successful than the dinosaurs and were around long before they ever came along. Here on Sanibel, we are surrounded by our scaly friends. We will learn some of the more common fishes here and sample them in the field.

Sea Stars: What Do They Do Here?

Starfish are commonly seen, found and caught on Sanibel. But, they are usually little understood by those seeing them. In this course, we explore what these curious creatures are, how they make a living, and what role they play in our local environments.

Whelk Reproduction: Egg Case Production and Life History

What are those funny, and sometimes slimy strings of little pouches we encounter on our beaches in the spring and summer? Conch egg cases - each string laid by one individual. We will collect and identify egg cases and then open them up to see what surprises are inside.

The Recent History of Sanibel and its Inhabitants

What have people done on Sanibel since the Calusa Indians were here? Pirates loved these islands, in fact the US Navy had to come and chase away them away to make it safe for farmers, fishermen and other settlers. We will explore our rich island history in this course.

Gopher Tortoises: Sanibel's Slow, Shy Treasure

Burrowing tortoises on a barrier island - what is this, the Galapagos? No, but we do have these little treasures here on Sanibel. They dig burrows in the forests on Sanibel and live in very complex and fascinating communities that we sometimes forget on our way to the beach.

Predatory Mollusks: Predation at a Snail's Pace

Where do all those shells come from on our beaches? How did they die? Many of them died because other animals ate them. We will explore mollusk predation and learn how to figure what might have killed the animals that made the shells we collect.

What's in a Shovelful of Sand? Living Between the Grains

There is an amazing world that lives beneath our very feet in every shovel full of sand on the beach. We will explore these common, but over-looked communities and see who lives there and what they do for a living.

Where do the Waves Come From?

Humans love to sit and stare at waves, we love to play in them and ride on them. But, how are these toys of nature made? How do we describe them? We will lean about these processes and then go out and measure some for ourselves