Chattahoochee Riverkeeper offers two “floating classrooms,” one on Lake Lanier and another on West Point Lake. Together, these acclaimed environmental-education venues have successfully delivered unique and exceptional learning opportunities to more than 60,000 students and teachers.
Through these water-based learning centers, students engage in a variety of hands-on activities that incorporate STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), and which are tied to age-appropriate Georgia Standards for Excellence.
What do they learn?
- Water-quality testing
- Identification of freshwater plankton and wildlife
- How lake water ends up flowing from faucets in homes and schools
- Ways they can protect these precious water resources
- Supplemental land-based watershed activities, and…
- Lake history lessons
Program scholarship awards make it possible for thousands of financially disadvantaged students—from Title I schools and after-school and summer programs—to participate.
See the impact Floating Classrooms have on students and our community.
The LLALC’s curriculum is designed by Elachee Nature Science Center to be grade-level appropriate and complement classroom studies. All Elachee programs are correlated to Georgia’s Performance Standards and Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) and Gwinnett County’s Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) requirements. Elachee Nature Science Center is also Georgia’s first and metro-Atlanta’s only nature center accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
West Point Lake Floating Classroom
The West Point Lake Floating Classroom (WPLFC) program takes place aboard the Miss Sally – a 42-foot vessel certified to carry up to 44 passengers – and is the only experiential program of its kind to serve the Middle Chattahoochee region. Since launching the program in 2015, nearly 20,000 students, teachers and adults have participated in the program.
A key focus of the WPLFC program is to serve those who may not otherwise have the means to experience the program. Because of the generous support from public and private donors, we have provided more than 9,000 full scholarships to students in financial need and underserved youth participants of civic organizations. Depending on the number of outings in the year, our operating expenses are approximately $30 per participant. However, all other school and community groups benefit as well from additional donor support that allows us to subsidize program costs.