Shell museum provides Adopt-A-Class program for school year
For nearly 20 years, the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum on Sanibel has been able to provide free field trips and outreach education to Southwest Florida students thanks to donors who have supported its Adopt-A-Class program.
The program provides education to students in kindergarten through 12th grade about the world of mollusks, their shells and marine life, plus the conservation of their ecosystems.
Despite the evolving circumstances of the pandemic, the museum announced that the program will return for the 2021-22 school year. To offer the most flexibility during a period of continued adjustments in Covid-19 protocols, it will now offer schools four options to choose from: guided field trips to the museum, self-guided field trips, Mollusks on the Move mobile outreach and Mollusks Online virtual classes.
– Guided field trips: Students experience hands-on learning in the world of mollusks, the second-largest phylum of animals on the planet. They explore the museum’s aquariums of live mollusks and marine life, touch local mollusks in the touch pools, explore the Great Hall of Shells, and participate in a range of fun and interactive educational activities taught by museum educators.
– Self-guided field trips: Self-guided field trips are ideal for those schools interested in visiting the museum, but also in designing their own experience. The museum offers self-guided field trips through the aquarium and Great Hall of Shells. Self-guided visits allow for greater flexibility with scheduling and transportation.
– Mollusks on the Move: For schools that cannot make it to the museum for a field trip, marine biologists can bring the mollusks to the classroom. Hands-on programs introduce students to many aspects of a mollusk’s life, including anatomy, growth, diet, reproduction and their role in the ecosystem.
– Mollusks Online: Marine biologists bring the museum, wonders of shells and mollusks virtually to classrooms via Zoom and WebEx. Programs featuring the giant Pacific octopus and other animals introduce students to the diversity of molluscan life and their habitats, the basics of conservation and highlights of the museum’s shell collection.
The museum will prioritize allocation of Adopt-A-Class funds to Title 1 schools to ensure that students in the region — many of whom have never visited the beach — have access to the stories, lessons and experiences of the shells, marine life and conservation education that the museum offers, regardless of a school’s or students’ ability to pay.
For more information, https://www.shellmuseum.org/educators or contact Kelsey Hausmann at khausmann@shellmuseum.org or 239-347-5119.