School Visits Location: Crystal River, Florida Day 13 by Karen Brown

In the morning we went to Crystal River Primary School. The entire second grade met us in the cafeteria. They have a huge cafeteria. It has a nice stage at one end. The students sat on the cafeteria benches. We had a lot of fun talking to them and asking them questions and answering their questions.

First Wayne told them about us, that we are from California and that we are on an expedition to study manatees. And he told them about all of you who are following this expedition on your computers.

Since second graders are a little too young to be scuba divers, we showed them our scuba diving equipment. One boy and one girl tried on some of our scuba gear while we explained how it is used. We also explained that we do not use the tank when we look for manatees. We just use our mask, fins, and snorkel for manatee exploration.

Then we talked about manatees. Quite a few of the students at Crystal River Primary School have been swimming with manatees. A lot more have seen manatees in the River and at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. All the kids love manatees. Most of them know a lot about manatees.

I asked them what they like best about manatees. They told us that they like manatees because they are gentle, and that they won't hurt anyone. They like manatees because you can swim with them. They told us that a manatee is fun to touch and that its skin feels kind of rubbery, like a basketball or football.

After we finished talking about manatees, we went outside to take a picture of all the students so you could see what second graders in Florida look like. To me they look very nice and I found out that they are very nice!

The Crystal River second graders hope that all of you can come to Florida to see and meet their very special friends, the manatees.

After lunch (we had ham & cheese sandwiches), we went to Homosassa Elementary School. We met two third grade classes in Mr. Stokes' classroom. Mr. Stokes has a computer in his room. He has a big screen so that everyone in the classroom can look at one computer screen.

So Mr. Stokes used his computer to find www.theoceanadventure.com and we told him how to go to this internet expedition. We told the classes about all of you and showed them exactly what you have been looking at the past 2 1/2 weeks. (I was embarrassed when Wayne told Mr. Stokes to go to the picture of me in the mermaid costume!) They were all really excited that you have been learning about their favorite animals, the manatees.

After talking with these two classes, we found out that most of the children had seen manatees before. There were a few who had not seen manatees as yet but they are planning to in the near future.

Some of the third graders have touched manatees and they said that their skin feels wrinkly and like a basketball or football. One boy had touched an elephant before and he said that manatees feel like elephants. I agreed with him, but said that manatees are wet and elephants are dry. But manatees do have stiff hairs sticking out here and there like elephants do, but manatees' hairs are a little bit softer, I guess because their hair is always soaking in water.

One boy said that manatees feel slimy on their backs. Do you know why a manatee might feel slimy on its back? Well, it is because when a manatee has been in freshwater for a while, algae (a green plant) grows on the manatee's back. And algae feels slimy.

We asked the students to answer this question for us: If your parents told you that you could have one pet and that you could choose either a bird, a dog, a cat, or a manatee, which would you choose? Here's what happened: One person raised her hand for a bird. 5 students raised their hand for dog. 3 students raised their hand for cat. And then everyone raised their hands for manatee!

After we finished talking about manatees, a photographer from the local newspaper, The Chronicle, took some pictures of Wayne and me with some of the students. Then we went outside to take a picture of the students so that you could see them. Aren't they a great -looking group? They were all really nice.

We still had a little more time left so we went back in the classroom and showed them our scuba diving equipment. Two helpers tried some of it on.

Before we left, the two third grade classes at Homosassa Elementary School said that they think all of you should come to Florida to see the manatees. They want you to come so that you will know what a manatee is and that it is OK to touch a manatee.

Manatee Fun Fact: A mother manatee will not try to attack humans or other manatees that may come close to her calf. Instead, she will swim between the intruder and her baby. If she is still not comfortable, the mother and calf will swim away.

Here I am asking the 2nd grade Crystal River students what they like about manatees.

The 3rd grade students at Homosassa Elementary School say "hi" to all of our friends on our Internet expedition. (Wayne and I are on the left, waving in the back.)

I show Homosassa 3rd grade students our Internet Florida Manatee Expedition web site.

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