🌿 Bringing Nature into Learning and Learning into Nature

Help Create a Living Classroom for Every Shark

At Key Biscayne K-8, our students have something extraordinary just outside their classroom doors.

They are growing up surrounded by the unique ecosystems of Key Biscayne and Biscayne Bay, with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center right in their own backyard.

Through an expanded partnership with the Biscayne Nature Center, we have an opportunity to turn that incredible natural environment into an extension of the classroom for every KBK8 student.

Our goal is to raise $78,000 to support two connected initiatives during the 2026–2027 school year: immersive environmental education through the Nature Center and the creation of a lasting native Pollinator Corridor right here on the KBK8 campus.

Together, these initiatives can create a year-round learning experience that reaches approximately 800 students and connects what children discover in nature with what they can observe, nurture and protect at their own school.

One Vision. Two Meaningful Investments.

🌊 $28,000 | What’s in Your Backyard?

Imagine learning about coastal ecosystems not only from a textbook, but by stepping directly into them.

The What’s in Your Backyard? program would provide grade-tailored environmental experiences for students throughout the school year.

The proposed partnership includes approximately 25 field trips to the Biscayne Nature Center, serving roughly 32 students per trip, along with monthly in-school visits from Nature Center naturalists and hands-on garden workshops.

Students would have opportunities to explore Key Biscayne’s ecology and history, learn directly from environmental educators and develop a deeper understanding of the natural world that surrounds them every day.

The $28,000 investment supports a full year of programming, including curriculum development, naturalist time, educational supplies, field experiences and garden workshops.

It transforms our island from simply the place our children live into a place where they explore, question, discover and learn.

🌱 $50,000 | KBK8 Pollinator Corridor

Then we bring that learning home.

The proposed Pollinator Corridor would transform areas of the KBK8 campus into a living environmental classroom that students can help create and continue learning from throughout the year.

The first phase is envisioned to include a student-run native plant nursery, approximately 4–5 pollinator garden zones across campus, roughly 1,200 native plants, professional site preparation, installation, educational signage and student planting days.

Students would not simply walk past the finished gardens.

They would help build them.

They can plant, observe pollinators, learn about native species and habitats, watch ecosystems change over time and begin to understand what environmental stewardship looks like in practice.

The result is more than campus beautification.

It is a living laboratory, outdoor classroom and lasting student legacy that can continue educating future generations of Sharks.

The Full Vision | $78,000

Together, they create a continuous learning experience:

DISCOVER 🌊 → LEARN 🔎 → PLANT 🌱 → OBSERVE 🦋 → PROTECT 💙

Students can discover Key Biscayne’s natural environment at the Biscayne Nature Center.

They can continue that learning with naturalists and hands-on workshops at school.

And then they can put those lessons into action by helping establish and care for a native ecosystem on their own campus.

Your support can help make possible:

$28,000 | LEARN & DISCOVER 🌿
What’s in Your Backyard?
Approximately 25 field trips, monthly naturalist visits, garden workshops, curriculum, supplies and environmental experiences across all grades.

$50,000 | GROW & PROTECT 🦋
Campus Pollinator Corridor
A student-run native plant nursery, approximately 4–5 pollinator garden zones, roughly 1,200 native plants, professional site preparation, installation, signage and student planting experiences.

$78,000 | ONE YEAR-ROUND LIVING CLASSROOM 💙
Connecting approximately 800 KBK8 students with environmental learning from Pre-K through 8th grade.

Why It Matters

The Biscayne Nature Center has a 55-year history in Crandon Park, making this partnership especially meaningful for a school and community fortunate enough to have this resource in our own backyard.

This is an opportunity to give our children something that extends beyond a single field trip or lesson.

It is the opportunity to help them develop curiosity, scientific understanding, environmental responsibility and a deeper connection to the community they call home.

And the Pollinator Corridor gives students something equally powerful: the opportunity to leave their own positive mark on their school.

The gardens planted today can grow alongside our children and remain for the Sharks who follow them.

Every Gift Helps Something Grow

Public funding provides the foundation for our school. Our community helps make more possible.

Whether a family gives $25, $100, $500 or chooses to help fund a larger portion of the initiative, every contribution brings us closer to creating these experiences for our students.

Together, we can turn our backyard and our campus into one extraordinary classroom.

🌊 800 Students. One Island. One Living Classroom.

One Fin. One Family. An Ocean of Possibilities.

Our Island. Their Classroom.

Year-round environmental learning partnership that connects every Key Biscayne K-8 student to the extraordinary natural environment in our backyard; both at the Biscayne Nature Center and right here on our campus.