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Soaking Up Science

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Students from Lomax Magnet Elementary, work as a team searching for sea life on the water at Upper Tampa Bay Park.

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By PHILIP MORGAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2007

Photo Gallery From A Day On The Bay

TAMPA - Patrick Cannizzaro tells the fourth-graders around him that they've been brushing their teeth with algae all their lives.

"Ewww!" the kids shout.

He hoists a ragged clump of seaweed, a relative of which produces carrageenan, a stabilizing agent in toothpaste.

"It's also in mascara," he says.

"Ewww!"

This sure beats the standard field trip, especially if you're in fourth grade. These kids from Lomax Magnet Elementary School get to slosh around in the muck just offshore from Upper Tampa Bay Park, gathering buckets of tiny sea life.

Each year, about 30 schools in Hillsborough County send students splashing into the surf and on other wildlife excursions conducted by the Institute of Florida Studies, an environmental outreach program run by Hillsborough Community College. For more than 25 years, biologists Cannizzaro and Peter Rossi have introduced wide-eyed youngsters to the live creatures and plants they've only read about in textbooks.

If it's water quality or seagrass studies, they may go out in a boat in Cockroach Bay, near Ruskin. If the focus is a freshwater wetlands and uplands environment, they visit English Creek in Plant City. At Upper Tampa Bay, students check out life in the estuary, a nursery for the Gulf of Mexico's game fish.

"They love coming out here and being hot and wet, and finding new little critters," says Julie Lehan, curriculum specialist for the math, science and technology magnet school.

Before the youngsters wade in the shallows, they follow Rossi along a boardwalk through the mangroves. He stops at a tree and quizzes the class.

"So, we've got three characteristics," he says, standing by a tree. "We've got a shiny [leaf] coating; we've got prop roots; we've got propagules growing. What kind of mangrove do we have?"

"A red one," a boy answers.

"Very nice," Rossi responds.

He points out yellow leaves on the red mangrove. "They call this the suicide leaf," he says. The plant filters out most of the salt at the roots and routes the remainder to specific leaves. They die, drop in the water, decay and create what?

"Detritus!" several answer.

"I'm really impressed," Rossi says.

Worms and crabs eat the detritus, he begins. "Then, along comes Sailfin Molly, who eats the worm." Soon, a trout gobbles up Molly. The tide comes in, bringing a snook to eat the trout. A dolphin comes along and devours the snook — after playfully bouncing it around for awhile. All, ultimately, have been fed by the suicide leaf.

Take My Claw, Please

At the shoreline, Rossi picks up one of dozens of scurrying fiddler crabs by a claw; the crab disengages from its claw and drops to the ground. The defense mechanism allows it to escape from predators. A new claw will grow back.

And why does it have such a big claw?

"To attract a female," a student answers.

It's a life sciences lesson etched in their memories.

"Hey-ay! Hey-ay!" calls Mariana Saurez, 9, waving her arm like a fiddler crab beckoning the ladies. It's how Lomax teacher Diana Wyatt made the lesson stick in their heads.

"We try to prepare them as much as possible, so they can see what they've learned," says Page Beer, another Lomax teacher. "After they come here, they'll develop even more interest, and go back and have questions that they'll want to further research.''

As the finale to the field trip, the students wade into the knee-deep water, going out about 50 yards as the muck sucks at their shoes. They dip buckets and nets and come up with live study aids.

On the dock, Cannizzaro discusses each find. He holds up the pencil-like seed of the red mangrove tree. These propagules can float around in the water nine to 11 months, he explains. After a while, one end dips downward, increasing the chance that it will get stuck in the muck, take root and become a new tree.

He reaches into a bucket and retrieves a baby flounder. When the fish is born, Cannizzaro says, it has an eye on each side and swims the same way most fish do. But soon, "his nose dissolves away, and one eye migrates to the top part of his head." He's now a flat bottom-feeder with eyes that independently rotate, allowing him to check for predators before he swims away.

The horseshoe crabs found in Tampa Bay are creatures that have not changed in 20 million years. They have pale blue blood, an extract of which is used in medical tests, Cannizzaro says. It costs $15,000 a quart.

Thumbs Up

The nature show captivates the young audience.

"This is really cool. I've had a lot of fun so far," says Alex Attir, 10.

Julius Smith likes it better than Nature's Classroom, a longtime field trip destination northeast of Tampa. The only thing the 9-year-old doesn't like is the long hike back and forth to the dock.

"It's healthy," he allows, "but it's not my thing."

Marchelo Judge, 10, the first with the answer to several questions posed by the biologists, loves studying mangroves, he says, because they protect baby fish from bigger ones.

"I love science and math," he declares.

A career in either, however, would be only a back-up plan.

"I want to be an NFL star."

The biologists with the Institute of Florida Studies guide school, college and other groups interested in the environment on field trips, though Rossi says they are booked up through the school year. For information, call (813) 757-2173.

Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at (813) 259-7609 or pmorgan@tampatrib.com.

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