On a special field trip in addition to cleanups this year, alternative education students visited the Sanctuary Exploration Center to sample plankton off of the Santa Cruz wharf and identify microorganisms at the center’s lab under the microscope.
This field trip was intentionally offered after the classroom and cleanup programs so that students could draw connections between plastic microfibers in cigarette butts and microplastics in the ocean and in plankton samples.
Sanctuary Exploration Center staff and Star Community School students view plankton under the microscope.
Dewitt students pull up a plankton sample from the Santa Cruz wharf.
Sanctuary Exploration Center staff and Star Community School students collect a plankton sample from the Santa Cruz wharf using a plankton tow.