Teacher Workshops for Aquaculture Education

Maryland Sea Grant and its partners have introduced teachers to aquaculture education through a series of practical, hands-on summer workshops.

South Carroll High School was the site of the first, in 1998. It was led by master teachers from Carroll County Public Schools who had used aquaculture successfully in their classrooms and by education specialists from Maryland Sea Grant.

Additional workshops have been held periodically since then, serving more than 100 teachers statewide.  The most recent workshop was held in the summer of 2017 for teachers from Allegany County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Garrett County and Harford County public schools.

Workshops are designed to expose teachers to many aspects of how aquaculture can be used as a " tool for teaching science" including:

• Learning about how research scientists are using aquaculture to study and restore important species in Chesapeake Bay.
• Designing, building, and setting up a successful aquaculture system for their school.
• Gaining experience with the tools and techniques for monitoring an aquaculture system, including lab-based activities for students.
• Developing a network of raise-and-release programs using a variety of Chesapeake Bay species.
• Learning grant-writing techniques to support further classroom expansion.

In this Maryland Sea Grant video, teachers who have taken the workshop describe the workshops and how Aquaculture in Action influenced their teaching: