From the moment her students stepped into the calm, bayside cove at Jones Beach State Park, youth group organizer Clariona Griffith knew this field trip would be different - because none of the kids did the typical kid-thing of splashing each other.

They were too busy.

The students, aged 10 to 14, were ankle-deep in the water and squealing, grabbing silverside fish from a large, curtain-like net, a seine, that educators had just dragged through the water and along the bottom of the bay. The kids peered into the shells of hermit crabs and caught European green crabs in their landing nets.

The activity started off a day-long field trip on July 17 offered by the Marine Summer Field Trip Program, a collaboration between Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Nassau County, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) and the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. The program, which hosts eight sessions throughout July and August for different youth organizations in Nassau County, engages more than 200 kids every summer with local marine wildlife and ecology, as well as water safety and sustainability education.

"What they're getting right now is exposure to nature," said Griffith, who owns a childcare centeroffering full-time, afterschool and summer programming for youth in Hempstead, New York, the largest township in the country and one of the most economically and racially diverse on Long Island. "Even though we live in Nassau County, we're not exposed to this fresh air. This is some of their first time stepping in water and realizing and appreciating the life that's in it."

Affectionately called "marine camp" by staff, the field trip is free for participating organizations, which often serve under-resourced communities. While all the students from Hempstead had been to the beach before, some kids who participate have never seen the ocean, despite living on an island.

"The intent of the program is to reach those youths who don't have many opportunities to get out here," said Michael Fiorentino, natural resources team leader for CCE Nassau County.

Fiorentino said the program aims to combat the discrimination and systemic racism that is part of Long Island's history. In the 1930s, developers intentionally designed the Jones Beach area to keep public transportation from reaching the beaches, for instance, building low overpasses that buses couldn't clear.

"We've seen, even years later, this still persisting in our communities, where if you didn't grow up going to the beach, you're not going to go," Fiorentino said, "which is why we think it's important to intentionally bring youth in for these types of experiences."

The program is in its eighth year and was started in Suffolk County by NYSG, a cooperative program funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and housed at Cornell and the State University of New York. Antoinette Clemetson, marine fisheries specialist for NYSG, said during one of the first years of the program, a youth group organizer recounted that his students had abruptly stopped talking when their bus came to the Robert Moses Bridge, which extends from the mainland to the barrier islands and beaches of Long Island. At that point, a hush fell.

"These kids had never been to the beach, and going over the bridge, they were just amazed looking outside the window," Clemetson said. "We want to bring groups that don't have the opportunity to come to the coast. And we also want to spur interest in marine biology in our students, that curiosity and excitement."

Chloe Dymek, natural resource program coordinator for CCE Nassau County, taps into CCE's 4-H network of youth organizations to schedule the field trips; a state park program reimburses the groups for transportation expenses and parking fees; and all three partners combine expertise to create a daylong curriculum with a focus on active learning.

"I look forward to this all year," said Hayden Uresk, outreach and school program coordinator at the Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center, which hosts the program in the park every year. "Getting kids outside, having fun. There's nothing better."