- This event has passed.
Field Trip – Orange City, FL
November 16, 2018 @ 8:00 am - 2:30 pm
Field Trip of Central Florida Habitats with Bill & Merilee Clifton from Science Partners beginning at Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, FL and ending at Lyonia Preserve in Deltona, FL.
WHEN: November 16, 2018
8:00 am – 2:30 pm
WHERE: Blue Spring State Park
2100 W. French Ave.
Orange City, FL 32763
CONTACT: Merilee Clifton
407-808-4458
sciencepartners@cfl.rr.com
COST: $28 students; $30 adults
We will meet at 8:00 AM at Blue Spring State Park, 2100 W. French Ave., Orange City, FL 32763. Use www.mapquest.com or www.googlemaps.com for directions and driving time estimate from your home. Driving directions for the rest of the day will be provided upon your arrival. Our habitat survey will end at Lyonia Preserve in Deltona at 2:30 PM.
Join Bill and Merilee Clifton – creationists, authors, Florida Master Naturalists, and science educators – as we explore Central Florida Habitats, observing plants and animals that were specifically designed to live in them. Our day begins at Blue Spring State Park (Orange City), home to several habitats including hammock, marsh, swamp, flatwoods, and sand pine scrub. We will cruise the St. Johns River aboard a hands-on, floating science laboratory! We’ll test the river water for temperature, salinity, and turbidity. We’ll dip, collect, and identify marine specimens. And, we’ll enjoy our captain’s narrated introduction to the wildlife and vegetation of this fragile ecosystem. We’ll keep a look out for manatees, alligators, otters, snakes, deer, turtles, birds, and more. Students will have the opportunity to earn a Jr. Birding Certificate in the “Wings over Florida” program of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. After our cruise, we’ll hike the boardwalk through the lush hammock along Blue Spring Run as we look for endangered manatees near the head of the springs. Back at the picnic pavilion, we’ll see a manatee skull and rib, and Mr. Clifton will teach us about manatees from a creationist perspective. Then, we’re off to Lyonia Preserve in Deltona where we will take a short hike into a scrub habitat looking for one of Florida’s rarest and most threatened birds, the Florida scrub-jay. We’ll learn about plants and animals created for the scrub habitat and contrast them with plants and animals of other habitats. We’ll also visit Lyonia Environmental Center and learn much from its educational displays and exhibits.