The Lake Lanier Aquatic Learning Center (LLALC), operated in partnership by UCR and Elachee Nature Science Center, is the only floating classroom in Georgia. Through this highly successful program, thousands of students each year, from the elementary grades through high school, learn about water quality and lake ecology through hands-on activities aboard a 40-foot catamaran. The custom-built boat, named Chota Princess II, includes a glass bottom viewing well and holds up to 49 passengers.

The LLALC is open to school or business groups, and programs can be specially designed to meet the participants’ needs. Two-hour and three-hour programs are available. To schedule a program, please contact Elachee at (770) 535-1976 or elachee@elachee.org.

Program History
Hands-on Activities
Curriculum and Accreditation
Contact Information

Program History
Thanks to funding from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and others, in 2000 UCR purchased and outfitted the original Chota Princess, a pontoon boat named after the Cherokee word for the Chattahoochee River. The boat and its accompanying education program formed the Lake Lanier Aquatic Learning Center (LLALC), a program that has served over 10,000 students from Georgia and other southern states since its inception in 2000.

In 2006, the U.S. Coast Guard issued new regulations on stability after several fatal pontoon boat accidents in New England, which ultimately restricted the number of passengers allowed on our boat. Although the Chota Princess has always operated safely, only 19 passengers could be accommodated, which significantly limited our education program.

UCR took steps to secure funding for a new boat and expand the reach of this popular education program, and many partners made it possible for the Chota Princess II to make its maiden voyage in May 2007. After initial funding came from the Vasser Woolley Foundation, additional support from Captain Planet Foundation, Walker and Marjory Rich Memorial Fund at SunTrust, McKinney-Geib Foundation, and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta facilitated the purchase and building of the boat.

Corinthian Catamarans custom-built the new Chota, with UCR’s longtime boat captain, Harlan Trammell, overseeing construction. UCR supporter Honda Marine donated one of the boat’s engines and provided a second at cost. Aqualand Marina, the world’s largest marina, continues to donate a boat slip on Lanier for the use of our floating classroom. Many other funders and supporters have made, and continue to make, the operation of the LLALC possible.

Hands-on Activities
Aboard the Chota II, students conduct a variety of hands-on activities—including dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and turbidity tests--to better understand the ecology of Lake Lanier. In addition, the students use nets to sample and identify freshwater plankton, the microscopic animals that form the base of the reservoirs many food webs. We cap off the on-board instruction by lowering a deep-water probe into the lake to measure DO, pH, and temperature and comparing those results to the previous results we found at the surface.

On shore, students look at the Chattahoochee River watershed and learn some of the challenges it faces. They build a simulated water treatment plant, conduct hands-on storm water demonstrations to compare a variety of permeable and impermeable surfaces, analyze watershed maps and play a rousing game of “Lakecology” to test their knowledge of Lake Lanier and its watershed.

In addition, special visits to the City of Gainesville’s “Lakeside Water Treatment Plant” or Gainesville State College’s GIS lab can be arranged for students interested in more advanced watershed study.

Curriculum and Accreditation
The LLALC’s curriculum is designed by Elachee Nature Science Center to be grade-level appropriate and complement classroom studies. All Elachee programs are correlated to Georgia’s Performance Standards and Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) and Gwinnett County’s Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) requirements.

Elachee Nature Science Center is also Georgia’s first and metro-Atlanta’s only nature center accredited by SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools).

Scheduling and Contact Information
All educational programs are scheduled directly through Elachee Nature Science Center. Please call (770) 535-1976 to get more information about programs offered and to book an outing.

If you would like to speak with a UCR staff member about our work with the floating classroom or would like more information on UCR’s work relating to Lake Lanier, contact Darcie Holcomb at (770) 531-1064.

For information on private boat outings contact Tammy Morrissey at tmorrissey@ucriverkeeper.org.

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Please also visit these School Programs:
Waters to the Sea
River Stewardship Trunks
Watershed Patch Project