Student-created Tampa Bay Watershed Videos
Source/Author: Kathryn Jeakle, MS Marine Science Teacher
January 22, 2026
A lesson on watersheds and water quality for eighth graders in Shorecrest Middle School opens the door for learning about the local Tampa Bay watershed. With an overarching goal of developing educated coastal citizens, students were exposed to often-underestimated and little-understood facts about the Tampa Bay watershed. (A watershed is an area of land that drains water into a specific waterbody. The Tampa Bay watershed is more than five times the size of the Tampa Bay estuary, covering 2,200 square miles.)
After completing the lesson, the eighth graders were given an alternative assessment challenge to create an informational video that would teach others about their local watershed, why it is important, and how we can keep it healthy. Students were allowed to use one sheet of notes regarding any content they wanted to feature in their video. Partners were randomly assigned; and the pairs had only 2 class periods (1 hour each) to complete their videos during the school day. (Since the videos were made at school under a limited time frame, please excuse any background noises that might be from school hallways, lockers or cars driving by.)
To involve the greater community, each student was asked to share their video with a parent / guardian and one other adult for feedback. The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive! Here are a few of the videos that were created this year.
