An Estuarine Education at the Mini Oyster Bar

A Franklin/Gulf County affiliation of home school students recently joined us to study oysters and other animals in the estuarine habitat. Even the youngest students are able to draw, and so it was easy to see evidence that they could understand why oysters are a keystone species. The students raised many interesting questions after drawing and studying shells and live miniature oyster bars:  how do the babies find the other oysters, what made the holes, why are the oysters we saw so much smaller than the 9” fossil oyster? After asking some fascinating questions about oysters, the students all greatly enjoyed learning how to measure water quality parameters and seining for fish and macroinvertebrates in the bay.  We saw roughly 25 to 30 parents and students each day across 3 different days to dive into oyster ecology and their importance to our estuarine environment.  From parents to toddlers, the beauty and productivity of the bay was the best teacher of all.