LIFE – Honeymoon Island State Park

The LIFE Honeymoon Island State Park Program is a partnership between the Department of Environmental Protection and Dunedin Highland Middle School in Pinellas County. The program targets eighth grade students and involves four separate field experiences, one every nine weeks. Each field experience involves a number of distinct field labs led by DEP staff, volunteers and participating teachers. The field labs address priority topics that have been identified by the participating teachers and use the unique natural resources and ecosystems available at Honeymoon Island State Park to illustrate important concepts and principles in Life and Environmental Science. The field experiences delve into such topics as water quality, sand systematics, longshore drift and abiotic environmental factors.

This LIFE Program site is the subject of an 18 month project on coastal environmental education funded by the Gulf of Mexico Program. The project involves three pilot sites around the Gulf of Mexico and will examine the effectiveness of educational strategies for reaching underserved or underrepresented populations. The project also supports the Gulf of Mexico Alliance a regional initiative to protect the Gulf of Mexico.

For more information on this Gulf Alliance Project, please contact Greg Ira at Greg.Ira@dep.state.fl.us.

Field Sites

• Honeymoon Island Field Sites via Google Earth - Link to an interactive map showing all field sites for Wakulla Springs Service Learning.
• Google Earth Instructions [PDF - 109 KB] - Provides information on how to use the Google Earth feature above.

Program Implementation Team

• Karen Malo
  Park Services Specialist, Honeymoon Island State Park: (727) 469-5942
• Brenda Poff
  Principal, Dunedin Middle School: (727) 469-4112

Program Content

Additional Resources

• Support the Gulf

• Gulf Alliance Education Educator Resources