The Tampa Bay Estuary Program is sponsoring the following teacher workshops this summer:

• Thursday, June 12 from 9 am-3 pm at Brooker Creek Preserve in North Pinellas

  Invasive Species Teacher Workshop utilizing the “Intruders in Paradise” teaching guide. Appropriate for grades 5-9. Learn how introductions of invasive plants and animals harm Florida’s native inhabitants and habitats, through classroom and field work. $50 stipend for participating teachers.

• Tuesday, June 17 from 9 am- 3 pm at Palma Sola Botanical Park in Bradenton

  “Tampa Bay: Living Legacy” Teacher Workshop. Immerse your students in the natural and cultural history of Tampa Bay with this workshop featuring curriculum designed to accompany the documentary film of the same name. Suitable for grades 9-12. $50 stipend for participating teachers. Participants receive the CD teaching guide, a DVD of the documentary film, and lots of other classroom resources.

• Thursday, June 19 and Friday, June 20 at Weedon Island Preserve in St. Petersburg

  “Tampa Bay: Living Legacy” Teacher Workshop. Immerse your students in the natural and cultural history of Tampa Bay with this workshop featuring curriculum designed to accompany the documentary film of the same name. Suitable for grades 9-12. $50 stipend for participating teachers. Participants receive the CD teaching guide, a DVD of the documentary film, and lots of other classroom resources. First day features classroom work; second day is in the field, including a guided canoe trip. Limited to 25 participants.

A companion teaching guide to TBEP’s award-winning documentary film, “Tampa Bay: Living Legacy” is now available to high school teachers in the Tampa Bay watershed.

The CD-based guide was created by a team of teachers in Hillsborough County. Although intended primarily for 9th grade biology, marine biology or integrated science classes, it is suitable for other high school grades as well. The film and teaching guide are both divided into six chapters; the teaching CD features six complete lesson plans, classroom activities, supplemental Power Point presentations, and vocabulary lists.

All lesson plans adhere to Florida’s High School Curriculum Standards. Lesson plans cover such topics as seagrasses, threats to the bay and key events in the natural and cultural history of Tampa Bay. The topics mirror those addressed in the 60-minute “Living Legacy” documentary film, that chronicles Tampa Bay’s transformation from a relatively unspoiled paradise in the 1950s, to a waterway battered by pollution in the 1970s, to its amazing rebirth and recovery beginning some 25 years ago and continuing today.

“Tampa Bay: Living Legacy” features interviews with scientists, elected officials and citizens, including well-known Floridians such as former Governor of Florida Bob Martinez, the Mayors of both Tampa and St. Petersburg, and former State Education Commissioner Betty Castor. Compelling archival images help tell the bay’s story, along with extensive new footage showcasing the extraordinary beauty of the bay’s habitats and inhabitants.

TBEP Public Outreach Coordinator Nanette O’Hara said she is pleased to be able to extend the reach of the film into classrooms through the companion teaching guide.

“So many kids in our area really have no idea how far the bay has come in its recovery, or how citizens contributed to that recovery through persistence and determination,” she said. “We hope the teaching guide will inspire the next generation of bay champions – our young people. The continued restoration of the bay is truly in their hands.”

The first teaching guide to marine invasive species in Florida is now available from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.

Designed for middle-school students, “Intruders in Paradise” contains 12 classroom activities, website references, a master vocabulary list, 29 Fact Sheets about individual invasive plants and animals, and additional resources – all as downloadable web-based files. Activities are aligned with both FCAT learning benchmarks and Sunshine State curriculum standards for grades 6-8.

The “Intruders in Paradise” guide was developed by The Florida Aquarium with assistance and funding from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Florida Sea Grant and the UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service.

Learn about the perils facing beach-nesting birds such as least terns and black skimmers by following little Tina Tern, who was born on the rooftop of a building near Tampa Bay. Created by the St. Petersburg Audubon Society with a grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, this booklet features many activities for children in grades 3-5 and is designed to meet Florida’s Sunshine State curriculum standards.

Designed for students at the middle-school level, this guide assists teachers and parents in educating pupils about the bay's outstanding natural resources, and its most pressing problems. Contains six teaching units that feature handouts, fast facts about the bay and classroom activities utilizing science, social studies, writing, and mathematics skills. The guide will be sent on CD unless a hard copy is specifically requested.

“Habitat Is Where It’s At!” is the theme of a new educational poster guide spotlighting the wild and wonderful creatures of the Tampa Bay watershed.

The poster, designed for grades 6-12, features a stunning photo mosaic of animals that inhabit a cross-section of bay habitats, from underwater seagrass meadows to upland forests and streams. On the back of this colorful poster are a series of lesson plans, activity extensions, and resources that explore the connection between healthy wildlife populations and healthy habitats.

The poster was produced by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and the University of South Florida Department of Marine Science. All lesson plans in the poster guide were created using current Florida Sunshine State Standards for science, social studies, language arts and the arts. The lessons were reviewed by environmental educators in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties.

A special thanks go to the many talented professional photographers who donated photos for the project, and to Carolyn Fay of Marketing Works EDU for coordinating design and production of TBEP’s first educational poster.

Teachers in the Tampa Bay region may obtain their FREE poster guide by calling the TBEP office at (727) 893-2765 or e-mailing nanette@tbep.org. The poster also is available to the general public for a $5 shipping and handling fee.

TBEP’s Video Lending Library allows teachers, students and others to borrow environmental videos FREE for up to a month. The videos are mailed in a reusable package with a return postage strip included.

For a list of videos available, please visit our video lending library.

To order one of the videos featured here, e-mail nanette@tbep.org or call the TBEP office at (727) 893-2765. For a list of videos available, please visit our video lending library.

School classes may adopt one of six manatees frequently seen in the Tampa Bay area for only $10 per class through Save The Manatee Club's popular Adopt-A-Manatee program.

Classes that adopt a manatee will receive a photo of their manatee, their manatee's biography, and an adoption certificate. They also receive a scar pattern sheet that depicts the identifying marks of the manatee and a map that shows their manatee's favorite "hangout" areas along Florida's west coast. In addition, they will receive the Save the Manatee Club Newsletter four times a year, with updates on their manatee's whereabouts and activities. Teachers also can receive a teaching guide to incorporate lessons about manatees into their class curriculum.

Save The Manatee Club recently expanded its manatee adoption program to include six manatees -- Ziggy, Jemp, Vector, Elsie, Ragtail, and Ginger -- that spend all or part of the year in Tampa Bay. A portion of the proceeds from the Tampa Bay Adopt-A-Manatee program will be spent on public awareness, education, rescue, and research efforts concerning manatees in and around Tampa Bay. These efforts will include television and radio public service announcements, public awareness signs, informational decals for boaters, and manatee education kiosks.

The Tampa Bay Beach Buddies is a shoreline cleanup program for Hillsborough, Manatee, and Pinellas counties. This program is designed to get our citizens involved in cleaning up Tampa Bay's shorelines so we can all be free to live, work, and play safely in our bay area waters -- not to mention making a safe living place for our marine animals.

Visit The Tampa Bay Beach Buddies website online at http://www.marine.usf.edu/beachbuddies