Stories From Now And Then: Short Stories for Kids
Oct 6, 2026 · 13 min · 9 segments
When a girl from New Jersey moves to Florida and falls in love with the ocean, one of the most impressive careers in to marine biology begins, in this true tale told by Nicola. Meanwhile, the Old…
This is a really exciting true story today because this story is about someone who is still alive and who has done some amazing things in her life.
She is the explorer of the oceans.
Let's begin.
She spent her early childhood on a farm.
There was a forest and a pond nearby, which she loved, and she spent long hours exploring the woods or crouched at the pond's edge, watching tadpoles, frogs, or whatever lived in the water there.
Her parents weren't the type to say, "Don't touch that!" or, "Get away from the muddy water." They instead encouraged her to look closely and to not be afraid of the unknown.
Her mother taught her one rule, and Sylvia always remembered it.
When you pick up a creature to examine it, you put it back exactly where you found it.
You look closely, and then you let it go back home.
When Sylvia was about 12, her father was having trouble finding work as an electrician, and the family decided to move closer to his brother in Florida and start a new business together.
So the family moved south to Clearwater, Florida on the state's west coast, where the Gulf of Mexico rolls up onto warm sand.
Sylvia did not want to go.
She preferred the farm and didn't want to leave.
But soon enough, she fell in love with the ocean and the waters of the Gulf Coast.
At 16 years old, she made her first dive.
Scuba diving gear barely existed yet, so she borrowed an old copper diving helmet, a very heavy round helmet that sits on your shoulders and is attached to a breathing hose.
Her parents didn't have a lot of money, and they hadn't gone to university themselves, but they encouraged her to work hard, and she was an excellent student, eventually getting a scholarship to go to Florida State University to pursue her passion for exploring the ocean.
And then on to Duke University for a master's degree and a doctorate, where she studied algae or algae and seaweed, the plants of the sea.
Plenty of scientists thought seaweed was a dull thing to spend years on, but Sylvia had worked out something they hadn't.
Nearly everything in the ocean eats the plants or eats the things that eat the plants.
Start with seaweed and you can follow the chain all the way to the whales.
By her 30s, she had logged more than 1,000 hours underwater, more than almost any scientist alive.
This is a really exciting true story today because this story is about someone who is still alive and who has done some amazing things in her life.
She is the explorer of the oceans.
Let's begin.
She spent her early childhood on a farm.
There was a forest and a pond nearby, which she loved, and she spent long hours exploring the woods or crouched at the pond's edge, watching tadpoles, frogs, or whatever lived in the water there.
Her parents weren't the type to say, "Don't touch that!" or, "Get away from the muddy water." They instead encouraged her to look closely and to not be afraid of the unknown.
Her mother taught her one rule, and Sylvia always remembered it.
When you pick up a creature to examine it, you put it back exactly where you found it.
You look closely, and then you let it go back home.
When Sylvia was about 12, her father was having trouble finding work as an electrician, and the family decided to move closer to his brother in Florida and start a new business together.
So the family moved south to Clearwater, Florida on the state's west coast, where the Gulf of Mexico rolls up onto warm sand.
Sylvia did not want to go.
She preferred the farm and didn't want to leave.
But soon enough, she fell in love with the ocean and the waters of the Gulf Coast.
At 16 years old, she made her first dive.
Scuba diving gear barely existed yet, so she borrowed an old copper diving helmet, a very heavy round helmet that sits on your shoulders and is attached to a breathing hose.
Her parents didn't have a lot of money, and they hadn't gone to university themselves, but they encouraged her to work hard, and she was an excellent student, eventually getting a scholarship to go to Florida State University to pursue her passion for exploring the ocean.
And then on to Duke University for a master's degree and a doctorate, where she studied algae or algae and seaweed, the plants of the sea.
Plenty of scientists thought seaweed was a dull thing to spend years on, but Sylvia had worked out something they hadn't.
Nearly everything in the ocean eats the plants or eats the things that eat the plants.
Start with seaweed and you can follow the chain all the way to the whales.
By her 30s, she had logged more than 1,000 hours underwater, more than almost any scientist alive.
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