A marine science educational series for middle and high school students took place for the first time along Florida’s Gulf coast.

Piloted at Cedar Key School, the educational series has around 14 students participating in five modules over the course of several months since the beginning of the year. Students undertake courses on top of their regular curriculum, and classes for the program happen sporadically throughout each month.

Through each module, students explore the different ways in which marine science impacts their lives, compare photographs of the coastline now versus from decades ago, study real data and work toward finding solutions to aquatic problems looming in their communities.

In collaboration with the University of Florida College of Education, the UF Marine Animal Rescue Program and Cedar Key Dolphin Project, the curriculum program leads up to two presentations about findings from the data they’ve studied and solutions to the problems they found in their community. The UF College of Education received $427,065 from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to kick start the program for 2025 and 2026.

Initially made to start in fall, the program was pushed back after hurricanes Milton and Helene devastated the Gulf Coast, said Hada Herring, a marine biologist and UF doctoral student who spearheaded bringing the program to fruition.

“These communities were very deeply affected by the hurricanes, which not only means our students, but our teachers, there are people in our team that lost their homes,” she said. “It was a very, very challenging time, and just speaks volumes to how we all rose to the occasion to make it still happen within the academic year.”

Stephanie Gazda, director of the Cedar Key Dolphin Project, said the program launched in the county to serve under-resourced populations.

“They’re really interested in doing some outreach to the K-12 area in that population, because it is an underserved community,” she said. “The students are a really interesting population, because even though they’re underserved and rural and don’t have a ton of resources, they have this amazing backyard of the ocean of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Levy County ranks 39th in the state for education, has a higher poverty rate than the national average and a lower life expectancy rate, according to Click Orlando and U.S. News and World Report.

In March, after months of studying and researching data, students consolidated their findings to present at the Guardians of the Gulf symposium among their peers and marine scientists in the community.

Students were ecstatic to have their work come to life and be presented to peers and professionals to see.

“It was really fun,” Gazda said. “The students were kind of hesitant at first, but they really got into it. When they were presenting their posters, I got to eavesdrop on a lot of the student poster presentations, and they were just so enthusiastic. It showed a clear level of excitement for the majority of the students there, [they] seemed to be really excited to be there.”

Becoming a marine scientist can come with insurmountable obstacles because of the requirement to have an internship under your belt before you graduate; the problem with securing an internship is that a majority of them aren’t paid.

Of the available positions suited for aspiring marine scientists, 55% were unpaid, according to The Official Magazine of the Oceanography Society.

“I was very lucky to find an internship that paid, like, I think it was $10 a day, but I did a part-time internship so I could work the rest of the time. But that’s not really a possibility for everyone,” Gazda said

Given the challenges that come with the pursuit of getting into marine biology, fewer college students major in the study, according to The Honor Society Magazine. Programs like Guardians of the Gulf can help reignite interest in the major for students wanting to pursue higher education.

“We want to empower [students] to use science and marine science knowledge to effect change locally, but we also want them to be able to stay locally and have their careers there, if they so choose,” said Dr. Julie Brown, UF College of Education and the project director for the program. “We don’t want kids to necessarily be required to move out of these areas in order to pursue their dreams,” Brown said.

In 2026, Brown plans to expand the program to four more schools in the county, which could include Yankeetown School, Williston Middle High School, Chiefland Middle High School and Bronson Middle High School.

In the future, Brown hopes to expand the program across the state, starting in Miami-Dade County, and plans to collaborate with the University of Miami.

The Levy County students are scheduled to present their solutions to ecological threats in the county to the Cedar Key City Commission on May 20.