When Florida K-12 schools were ordered closed for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 public health crisis, it became clear that this was going to be an unprecedented time — and a change in the way that children are educated. As teachers scrambled to adjust their lesson plans to a digital format and students settled into life at home, the Scientist in Every Florida School team set to work developing ways to aid teachers, students, and families.

Although the SEFS team had been in talks with Valencia College of Lake Nona’s Community Scholars Initiative earlier in the school year, the two organizations hadn’t yet found the right opportunity to work together. The move to virtual learning gave them the ideal opportunity to extend educational programming beyond SEFS’ seven pilot counties. In March, they collaborated to launch the Daily Dose and the Friday Q&A series as part of their rapid response effort to provide daily enrichment activities to students learning from home. Each week, students are exposed to a new topic to study through the Daily Dose. In addition to associated articles and videos, students can complete interactive projects such as web quests, outdoor activities, art, and engineering projects. The lessons culminate with a virtual Friday Q&A with a scientist in a related field.

The first Friday Q&A kicked off on March 27 with a session about “Why Sharks Matter,” presented by marine conservation biologist David Shiffman. Sharks are always a popular topic, so this was a perfect theme to launch the program and get students excited about earth systems science. Shiffman, who wore a shark hat for the occasion, introduced himself with an overview of his current and previous experience with shark conservation and then opened the floor for questions. The 67 students in attendance were ready to test Shiffman’s knowledge on topics from the role of sharks in a balanced ecosystem to shark fossils and protected marine parks.

Sometimes special guests make an appearance on the Friday Q&A — that was the case for the “Birds of Prey” session presented by Laura Vonmutius, Manager of Education at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. Vonmutius guided students through the characteristics of the seven types of birds of prey (owls, eagles, hawks, vultures, kites, falcons, and osprey) and the type of rehabilitation programs that the center provides.

Students learned that while it is preferred for birds at the center to be released back into the wild, some birds have sustained injuries that make them unreleasable. At this point, Vonmutius introduced her first special guest, a 34-year-old barred owl named Merlin, an example of one of the most common owls found in Florida. A second guest was Susie, an American kestrel, which is the smallest member of the falcon family.

“Bees as Pollinators,” led by City of Orlando Sustainability Project Manager, Daniel Friedline, was one of the most popular in the series so far. Friedline gave students a virtual tour of a honeybee hive that he helps maintain as a leader of Black Bee Honey, the City of Orlando’s initiative to teach students about beekeeping. Friedline showed several frames of the hive to highlight bees in each stage of honey production while he related the importance of bees to human food production, and how beekeeping can help.

If you haven’t tuned into a live Friday Q&A series yet, there’s still time! Make sure to join us on Friday, June 5th to learn about Glaciers, and on June 12th to learn about Sloths! You can also catch up on the Q&A’s you missed on our Youtube channel.

For a full list of upcoming programming, and links to associated enrichment activities for all past and future virtual events, click here.