Dore looks at another student working, Kayla poses for the camera, and Sarah reads another student's message.	Gregory, James, and Joey take a break from working on the mural to pose for the picture.	Brieanna is joined in her work by her younger sister, McKenna. Brieanna's mother and father stand off to the distance.

After our art activity, we set out to the mangroves to set-up a mesh collection net to capture plankton and other small creatures in the in-coming high tide.

VIERS staff member, David, sets up the mesh collection net with students as the high tide rushes into this opening in the mangroves.

After a few hours of sitting in the water, David helps students bring the net into the lab to see what we captured.	Students hang around the opening of the mangroves and check out what around them.

After we emptied out the mesh collection net, students look at the collected material in a tray and pick out the plankton and other small creatures.	Matty and Joey look carefully into their tray to collect small creatures. We collected various forms of plankton and baby fish. Some of the plankton creatures we found included spiny lobster, crab, jellyfish and fish larvae, as well as juvenile sea horses.	Kayla gets to look through the BIG tray that the collection net was dumped into. After we were done with the collection, we returned everything to the water to cause as little damage to the environment as possible.

At the same time, other students were busy processing soil samples from the mangrove.	The soil (or mud) was pressed down by the students through a series of progressively finer screens until all that was left was a little water and some microscopic organisms. Unfortunately, our sample had no organisms.

After we collected the plankton, students went into VIERS's laboratory to make wet slides and view the plankton under microscopes, as Gregory is here.	James is looking at a wet slide of a crab larvae, one of the students' favorite slides.

During our free time, in the afternoon, children went swimming with jellyfish - NOT part of the planned activities. Zac and Kayla were unfortunate enough to get stung. They're displaying the baking soda placed on the stings after vinegar was rubbed on them to stop the stinging. Zac liked the bubbling feeling of the vinegar and baking soda, but wasn't too happy about getting stung.

After a yummy dinner and clean-up, students watched a video that highlighted the coral reef community around St. Croix. The evening ended with a bonfire!

Wednesday night VIERS staff members made us a bonfire. Children roasted marshmallows and made s'mores!	Kayla and Matty had a few too many s'mores! Thankfully they made it through the night without getting sick!

The class woke up early Thursday morning (at 6:00 AM) to hike out to Lameshur Bay beach to search for turtle nesting activity. Dave passed out information sheets and discussed turtle nesting with the students before the walk. We found a few holes and mounds, but if they were from turtle nesting, they were old nesting sites.

These students are looking at one of the holes we found and discussing the possibility of it being an old turtle nest.

After breakfast National Park Service Ranger Laurel came to camp to teach about the local bird community. She brought birds wings, feathers, nests, and eggs for students to look at. She also shared photographs and bird guide books. Ranger Laurel's discussion focused on how birds are dependent on the many different environments around St. John.

Kayla is displaying a hummingbird nest. Students we're amazed at how tiny it was and how tightly crafted it was.	Ranger Laurel is showing the students a bird nest she rescued from a renovation site. The birds resettled into it for the remainder of the mating season.

Gregory is looking closely at bird bones. Ranger Laurel explained that  birds bones are light weight and hollow to enable them to fly.	Matty is holding a parrot feather up towards the sun. He said he could see a rainbow through it.

Dore and her grandmother look at the hummingbird nest together.	James is looking at a bird egg Ranger Laurel has preserved.

After her discussion with us, Ranger Laurel led the group, which consisted of students, teacher, parents, and grandparents, on an hour and a half  hike around Lameshur. Zac's mother donated a pair of mini binoculars for each student, and Ranger Laurel shared her high-powered binoculars with the group. During the hike we spotted 18 different species of birds!

The group stopped along the road to view some birds in the tree canopy.	The group stopped along the mangrove pond to view egrets and heron.	Around the bend, the group stops again to get a closer look at some egrets.

Another stop on road to view some birds ahead of us in the low brush.	James and his mother, Ruth, are looking into a bird's nest the group discovered on the hike. It had two eggs in it.	While we were at the VIERS laboratory building someone spotted two deer on the opposite side of the beach. It was quite a site!

Thursday afternoon, we had a scavenger hunt that challenged students to locate different plants and animals on land, in the water, and in the air. Students had an hour to complete the scavenger hunt which required them to hike or snorkel all around Lameshur in groups. The winning group won by only one item! It was a close race!

Sarah, Brieanna, Gregory and Zac pose next to their sand castle community.	Matty, Joey, and James (with Aimee, above) pose with their sundial community.	Jesse, Janet, Dore, and Kayla pose with their model of VIERS, an interconnected environment.

Our time at VIERS ended on Friday afternoon. Everyone who was part of the trip, students, teachers, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and staff had a wonderful time, full of many life-long memories! We were all sad to have the time end.

Just before hopping on the Frett's safari bus to head back to school. From left to right, standing: Miss Rachel, Sarah, Brieanna, Dore, Jesse, Joey, and James. Sitting: Kayla, Zac, Matty, and Gregory.

Click here to see press coverage of the students.

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