Floating Classroom - Land & Water Programs

Land & Water programs combine a Cayuga WaterLab cruise with shoreline and/or stream-based presentations at a few locations around Cayuga Lake. They offer an excellent format for accommodating groups of up to 80 students, and emphasize a whole-system understanding of our water resources. Classroom-based preparatory and follow-up exercises are available.
A minimum of three hours on-site is required for this program.


Land & Water programs can be arranged at a number of locations around Cayuga Lake, including the Ithaca Farmers' Market, Myers Point Park, Wells College, Seneca Falls and Taughannock Falls State Park.

Objectives: Students will have an opportunity to match a Cayuga WaterLab cruise experience with a complementary study of another aspect of our watershed systems. Students will have expanded opportunities to:

• Understand the relationships between the lake and one or more of the other elements of the watershed: weather events, land cover, stream corridors, stream and/or pond habitats.
• Articulate questions and explore specific hypotheses regarding these relationships.
• Use field equipment and techniques to observe, measure and evaluate watershed characteristics such as: stream velocity and volume, habitat and land cover features, or stormwater runoff impacts.
• Understand the concept of watershed and the relationship between water quality and individual watershed characteristics and events.
• Identify services provided by our watershed and Cayuga Lake, and how those services are dependent on the health of the entire system.

Land & Water Program At A Glance:

Classes will be divided into research teams for this program. Although the M/V Haendel can safely accommodate 30+ passengers, we prefer to limit boat occupancy to 20 or less, if possible, to accommodate WaterLab activities on-board. Each team will rotate between a monitoring cruise aboard the M/V Haendel and one or more land-based presentations over the course of the day.

Floating Classroom instructors will work closely with teachers to identify key concepts for the combined presentations, and to emphasize specific connections between the lake and other watershed components being explored.

Land-based Components: may be presented in 45 minute-1.5 hour presentation periods to compliment cruise times. Options are site-specific, and may include stream monitoring and assessment of aquatic insect populations, shoreline and upland land cover/land use survey techniques, or calculation of storm-water runoff impacts. General exploration of watershed features and human history is also available. For more information, see Land-Based Activities.

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