Think of the civil rights movement in our country, and Martin Luther King may
spring to mind. But here in Florida, the movement was propelled forward by
lesser-known activists like Patricia
Stephens. In honor of African-American History Month, New
Florida visits Stephens at her home and relives the
events that made her one of Florida’s foremost civil
rights activists.
We drink it, we wash with it, we nourish our lawns with it. But did you ever
wonder where all the water we Floridians use comes from? Believe it or not,
most of the water that flows from our taps originates beneath our feet, in
a massive network of underground caves called the Floridan Aquifer. New
Florida drops into a sink hole
to explore the aquifer with Terrence Tysall, a seasoned cave
diver from The
Cambrian Foundation.
Do you have fond memories of gym class? Not many of us do. Changing clothes in
front of classmates, getting picked last for the team, catching a dodgeball
in the face … gym class could be downright painful. Thankfully, online
PE classes offered by the Florida
Virtual School are making this "physical education" a bit less
brutal, and potentially much more effective. New Florida keeps pace
with a Florida teen who “attends” FVS, the state's first fully
accredited Internet-based public high school.
A monument stands at the corner of 50th Street and Alton Road in Miami Beach.
If the Indiana businessman it memorializes had never been born, there would
obviously be no monument there. But there might also be no there there – for Carl
Fisher was the man who built a bridge across Biscayne Bay and carved Miami
Beach out of the mangroves. New Florida remembers this real estate
visionary.
Despite the town’s name, it’s not tarpon that Tarpon
Springs is famous for. Rather, this west coast Florida town is known for
its sea sponges – the rough, oddly shaped beige sponges that are great
for exfoliating rough knees and elbows. But before those sponges can become useful
shower tools, they have to be harvested from the ocean floor. New Florida traveled
to Tarpon Springs to see how this 3000-year old industry operates.
