On Friday, Jan 26, 2024, MAST Academy’s AS Level General Paper sophomore class visited Deering Estate.
Deering Estate is one of Miami’s landmarks that showcases South Florida’s historic architecture and natural environment. It has over 450 acres of nature, which includes native ecosystems like the globally endangered pine, rockland habitat, tropical hardwood hammock, mangrove forests, salt marshes, Chicken Key, and submerged sea grass.
“We’re going to the Deering Estate to learn from a Mast Academy graduate from long ago, James Duncan, about how to restore the natural environment in South Florida,” stated General Paper teacher Ms. Helena Paisley.
“As we are one of the Piano Slam’s 12 schools here in the county this year, and we’re going to be writing poetry about restoring nature for the Piano Slam poetry competition. So, since Piano Slam has a science side and a musical side, the visit to the Deering estate is kind of part of that science side” Paisley said
Along with writing about poetry and learning about native and non-native plants students have to opportunity to see the restoration site and what the scientists and environmentalists are doing with it.
“We went around the mangrove trees, and we picked up trash, other people pulled invasive species,” Sophomore Nicolas Peralta told The Beacon. ” My friends and I were competing with each other to see who could pick up the most trash at the end”
Students also have to opportunity to get their hands dirty by participating in the process of pulling non-native plants, and learning about different invasive species.
“I learned that we should help our environment by keeping it clean, and the effects invasive species can have on our environment. I also learned that it can also be a fun activity, not just something that’s considered boring ” stated Peralta
