KAHULUI, Maui — The Pride of America cruise ship served as a floating classroom yesterday for students from three Maui schools.

The inaugural Science Day at Sea program featured lessons on some of the ocean's largest and smallest inhabitants — humpback whales and plankton — and included an up-close encounter with a group of young green sea turtles that will be released into the wild by week's end.

The program will welcome students at each port of call on the Pride of America's weeklong cruise through the Hawaiian Islands. Maui was the first stop, with Hilo; Kailua, Kona; and Nawiliwili up next.

Seventy-five students from Kalama Intermediate School, Kamehameha Schools Maui campus and the Kihei Charter School visited the cruise ship at Kahului Harbor. In addition to a tour of the vessel, students attended presentations on humpback whale and sea turtle research and rescue programs and used digital microscopes and laptop computers to identify plankton in water samples taken from the harbor and to test water quality.

They also gathered around two plastic kiddie pools containing six sea turtles, four of which were bred in captivity at Sea Life Park. The other two were raised at a facility by George Balazs, head of the Marine Turtle Research Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

Balazs explained to the students how satellite transmitters will be attached to three of the turtles when the animals are released Friday about 15 miles off Kaua'i. The data transmitted by the devices will help researchers learn more about the life and travel patterns of young turtles in the open ocean, he said.

NOAA and Sea Life Park will have teamed up to release more than 61 sea turtles from NCL America ships since 2006. But this is the first time the company is participating in the student program in conjunction with the release.

Alan Yamamoto, NCL America's vice president of Hawai'i operations, said the program is part of the company's community integration efforts and provides marine education to both local students and cruise ship passengers who were just as fascinated to see and touch the creatures as the youngsters.

Participating schools on the Big Island are Connections Charter School, Ka 'Umeke Ka'eo Charter School, Kealakehe Middle School, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy and West Hawai'i Explorations Academy; and on Kaua'i, Kaua'i High School, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School and King Kaumuali'i Elementary School.

Other sponsors of the Science Day at Sea program are NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Hawai'i Preparatory Academy and the Maui Ocean Center.