In 2019, Seymour Marine Discovery Center welcomed nearly 9,000 students from 300+ classrooms to don their lab coats, slip on their goggles, and open their minds as they learned about marine science with their own hands. They interacted with live animals and kelp to learn and model land and sea ecosystems. They traveled back in time to discover ancient environments and prehistoric creatures with real, local fossils. We invited them to pose their own questions, develop their own hypotheses, and make their own observations like real scientists do.
Then the world changed.
Since March 2020, the halls of Seymour Marine Discovery Center have quieted, lacking the stomps and hollers of children discovering the oceans with their hands, hearts, and minds.
You can help get thousands of kids from Santa Cruz County and the greater Bay Area back to the Seymour Center in 2022 in safe, indoor–outdoor marine labs.
With $15,000, Seymour Center staff will prepare our wet and dry labs for hybrid indoor–outdoor experiences that adhere fully to national, state, local, and University of California regulations on COVID-19. Your support will fund upgrades to the outdoor stations to keep our kids, teachers, and creatures safe and healthy. It will also fund the specialized equipment required to safely move sea creatures in and out of tanks. Finally, it will fund staff time necessary to adapt the curriculum to an indoor–outdoor hybrid approach while maintaining California’s Next Generation Science Standards.
Your support will allow us to bring in 1,500 student visitors from 50 schools
in the first half of 2022. Half our student visitors come from Santa Cruz County and half from the greater Bay Area. 40% come from Title One schools, which have large populations of students from low-income families.
“The [Seymour Center’s] Discovery Lab provided my students with a spectacular opportunity to observe a wide variety of organisms from the California coast and learn about their diversity and the functions of their varied body structures. It's a wonderful hands-on experience.” –Anonymous Santa Cruz County educator in 2019
Your gift today supports the children and teachers in our community who have missed out on so much over the past two years. We promise to deliver unforgettable experiences.
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Rank | State | Gifts |
---|---|---|
1 | CA | 34 |
2 | CO | 2 |
3 | TX | 1 |