FULL FOR 2021-2022 SCHOOL YEAR

​It’s our mission to provide quality, engaging, maritime-themed learning opportunities that will excite and inspire our visiting students. All programs are student-focused and activity-based.  
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Learning Labs will be offered Monday through Friday starting in October 2021. Learning Labs fees are $100 per class* (up to 30 students) including admission to the museum and adult chaperones (ratio 1:5). Additional adults will be charged $8 per person. Free to all Clatsop County Schools.  

Bus transportation scholarships (Clatsop, Columbia, and Tillamook Counties) are provided with support from the Northwest STEM Hub and are available by application.  ​

* Shark Dissection Learning Lab has a $150 specimen fee in addition to the $100 Learning Lab fee

Intro to
Underwater Robotics

In this activity-based program, students will learn the fundamentals of underwater Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) design. Working in teams, students will build an ROV and try to recover the seven missing cannons from the USS Shark, which wrecked near the Columbia River entrance in 1846.
Gallery Connection:  USS Shark Exhibit
Grade Level:  4+
Time:  1 hour 30 minutes
Fee:  $100

NOTE: 
​This Learning Lab is available starting March 2022

Advanced Underwater Robotics

Prerequisite: Students must have completed the Intro to Underwater Robotics Learning Lab in the last 12 months.
In the second installment of the Underwater Robotics Learning Lab, students will learn the fundamentals of underwater ROV design and hydraulics engineering. Working in teams, students will build a ROV with a movable tool to help recover artifacts from the Santo Cristo de Burgos, which wrecked off the north Oregon coast in 1693. This program includes a "behind the scenes" viewing of Santo Cristo de Burgos artifacts with our curator.
Grade Level:  6+
Time:  2 hours
​Fee:  $150

NOTE:
This Learning Lab is available starting March 2022

Economics of Trade

The Columbia River has been an important trading highway for the people who live along its banks—from sailing ships entering the river for the lucrative fur trade to the modern ships that move automobiles, containers, and bulk grain around the world. This interactive Learning Lab will explore the historic and economic factors involved in trade on the Columbia River. The lab will culminate with a trading activity that encourages students to work with their classmates in order to go home with the items that hold the most value for them.
Gallery Connection:  Brix Maritime Hall, Fur Trade Exhibit
Grade Level:  4+
Time:  50 minutes
​Fee:  $100

Immigration

Students will travel back in time to the late 1800s, when floods of immigrants were coming to America. Most European immigrants entered on the East Coast through immigration stations like Ellis Island--but what about Asian immigrants? Students will learn how Asian immigrants were treated differently compared to Europeans moving to the West Coast. They will be assigned different names and numbers based on a real ship manifest entering the Columbia River and will act out the different steps in the immigration process, including a stop at "The Ellis Island of the Columbia River"—the Knappton Cove Quarantine Station.

​NOTE: To create the most impact, this Learning Lab will have unfair consequences where only SOME students will receive a treat. If you think your students will not be able to handle this, please choose a different program.
Gallery Connection:  Brix Maritime Hall
Grade Level:  5+
Time:  1 hour
​Fee:  $100

Lighthouses

What is the purpose of a lighthouse? How do they work? What was it like to live in a lighthouse? Students will explore the science behind the Fresnel lens, learn about the sentinels of the Graveyard of the Pacific, explore life as a lighthouse family, and build their own miniature model of Cape Disappointment Lighthouse to take home.
Gallery Connection:  Lightship Columbia, Navigation Gallery
Grade Level:  2+
Time:  1 hour
​Fee:  $100

Education Park & Model Boat Pond

Enjoy a relaxing lunch in our new Education Park.
Museum staff will provide different model boats for students to captain as they finish their lunches.
​Fee:  $50

Shark Dissection

Vitamin A was desperately needed during World War II to improve night vision for pilots. Shark liver oil was found to be a rich source of vitamin A, and fisheries along the Oregon Coast began forming to catch dogfish and soupfin sharks for their liver.
In this Learning Lab, students will work in pairs to dissect Squalus acanthias (dogfish). Sharks are fascinating fishes with a cartilaginous skeleton, extremely large liver, and a tough skin covered in placoid scales. Students will observe the exterior of the shark before moving into an internal exploration that focuses on the amazing and oily liver.
*A specimen fee of $150 is included 
Gallery Connection:  Shark Fishing Exhibit
Grade Level:  7+
Time:  1 hour, 30 minutes
​Fee $250