Who Comes to Marinelab?
Many people who ask where our students come from are often surprised to hear that they come from all across the United States! About 75% of our school groups come from within the state of Florida, from Key West to Tallahassee and all points in between. Outside of Florida, we host school groups from New England to California and as far north as Alaska! Just in the past two years, we’ve had students visit from Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and other Midwestern and Northeastern states.
Wellington Elementary from West Palm Beach has been coming since 1989. Say hi to their Marinelab class of 2004!
We even get groups that are made up of students from multiple states, like the summer program we host for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. They get students together from all over the Southern states and head down to MarineLab for a week of exploring our coastal marine ecology. Check out this video of AIDB from 2019. This past summer, we hosted a National Geographic Photography Camp, too!
Most of our schools attend year after year – MarineLab is part of their school culture. Jacksonville Country Day School (Jacksonville, FL) has been bringing their students to MarineLab since 1998. We even have a school that has brought their 7th graders every year since 1987, except for during the pandemic of course! But it’s not just Florida schools that make MarineLab an annual program; Hamilton High School West from Hamilton, NJ has been coming since 1995. Instructor Riley, our Curriculum Specialist, actually came to Marinelab with Hamilton High in 2014!
Seacrest County Day School from Naples, FL has been bringing students since 1997!
Our programs are attractive to both public and private schools. Lutheran schools from in and outside Florida LOVE MarineLab programs; every year we welcome several different Lutheran schools from Florida, and we also get a whole swath of Lutheran middle schools from the Midwest that come at the same time, coordinated by teacher Kevin Rudzinski. St. Mark’s Episcopal School from Ft. Lauderdale is just one of several Episcopal schools that make annual journeys to MarineLab. Several other private schools without religious affiliation also attend MarineLab. Often we get multiple schools from the same public school district – we’ve even hosted “rival” schools here at the same time!
We even get the occasional international group. Most recently, we’ve hosted a scouting group from Toronto, Canada and a private school from the Dominican Republic.
Some schools leave signed shirts that cover our cafeteria walls. We always love new additions!
And it’s not just students that come from all over – our summer teacher workshops always attract a mix of educators not just from the US but around the world. In 2022 we hosted nine teachers from Caribbean nations who attended as part of our Caribbean Teacher Initiative, plus teachers who worked in schools in Italy, China, and Vietnam.
These are just the groups who experience MarineLab in person. Through our virtual eMarineLab programs, we are able to teach about marine science to classes and schools anywhere that has internet service.
We’re proud that MarineLab programs appeal to so many different types of schools, and our instructors love teaching such diverse students!