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requested our teacher partners to distribute it to students. Additionally, we sent the form to parents for whom we have email addresses, in an effort to acquire as much data and information about our new lagoon Guardians program. ORCA received 25 out of 48 (52%) completed post surveys. During the pre -assessment, only 60% of students were able to appropriately identify two specific positive and negative characteristics of the IRL. In comparison, the post assessment results showed 100% of students were able to identify at least two specific characteristics. When asked to define 'biodiversity' on the post assessment, 96% were able to do so correctly for a 43% increase from the pre -evaluation. Interestingly, a hundred percent of all students were able to list at least one thing that they can do to help the lagoon and 80% of students felt it was their responsibility to restore and protect our local environments. These results indicate that not only did student knowledge surrounding the lagoon increase, but intrinsic environmental stewardship and personal accountability did as well. In addition to our school year program, ORCA successfully completed two weeks of summer camp in July 2020. Concerns over COVID-19 required us to make several changes to the Lagoon Guardians summer camp. The total number of students accepted to camp each week was reduced from 25 to 15 to reduce exposure. Students were provided face buffs in lieu of t -shirts and required to social distance when necessary. Both weeks of camp began with 15 registrants, but 4 students were unable to attend because of illness or concerns related to COVID-19. A total of twenty-six (22 unduplicated) middle school students completed the weeklong field based camp focused on ORCA's citizen science projects highlighted above. During the week, students collected and processed fish samples, learned about the natural history of the Indian River Lagoon, conducted biodiversity surveys and learned about the importance of native plants to the lagoon. In addition to the hands-on science lessons, students were able to explore the lagoon through recreational activities including, fishing, spoil island exploration and kayaking. Goal 2: Enhance student knowledge and interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topics, which provide the basis for their personal academic success in related courses as measured by post program questionnaire. Baseline: Pre and post course questionnaire Result: Students were issued a short questionnaire at the start and end of the Lagoon Guardians Program that assessed their general knowledge and interest in STEM and STEM- related fields. Surprisingly, 80% of students clearly indicated a desire to pursue a STEM -related field in their pre -course survey. Specific careers that were listed include: cardiologist, marine biologist, veterinarian, chemists, and engineer. This was an unexpectedly high percentage of students interested in pursuing a profession in a STEM -related field and ORCA aimed to maintain student interest throughout the program. Once again, due to COVID-19 and School District of Indian River County closures, we were sadly unable to conduct our last in -class and field-based Lagoon Guardian lessons and consequently was unable to distribute the hard copy questionnaire to student participants. Despite, the limitation of not being able to present the post evaluation to each student in the classroom, which did greatly decrease the number of responses (25 out of 48), 80% of students did indicate an intention to pursue a STEM - related career. 137