2025 has been full of shucking, cooking & touch tank biology lessons for all ages!

Extra curricular

The ‘25-’26 school year is here and the WT School Club, BioKids for 2nd-4th graders, has spent the fall exploring the scientific method and coastal marine life. Our 4H club, Seashore Explorers, began again in October and has brought kids to the south shore and the Tisbury Great Pond to learn about differences in coastal habitat and history.

The ‘24-’25 school year clubs were great fun where students conducted science experiments, learned how to shuck, and shared local seafood meals with other families. This year’s clubs and educational activities are being partially funded by a grant from the Slough Farm Foundation, which is allowing us to continue collaborating with other organizations like Trustee’s The Farm Institute to involve youth in our local seafood.

The aim of these clubs is to inspire young scientists with simple experiments, expose them to aquatic life, and teach them how to be better stewards of our marine environments. We also work with scouts and other organizations & clubs.

Classroom visits & shoreside tours

MVSG continues to work with schools, libraries, camps, and other organizations. If you are interested in a classroom visit or a fieldtrip to one of our hatcheries, please reach out to our Education Manager.

In 2025, we reached nearly 1,100 students Pre K- Grade 12 to host demonstrations and share facts about water quality, shellfish benefits, salt marsh ecosystems, and the world of science.

After a 20 year hiatus, we started hosting school groups at the John T. Hughes Research Station to build shoreside aquariums, peek inside our greenhouse hatchery & walk the Brush Pond Marsh with our Marine Biologists. This set up has brought local kids back into the hatchery since spring of 2023. Each year we are adding new stations like an accessible touch tank and activity center in 2025.

How to Lessons - ALl ages!

2025 and 2026 are loaded with collaborative partnerships. With support from the Slough Farm Foundation, MVSG has continued to evolve programming centered around the bivalve as a climate-resilient, local food source. We work with individuals, other conservation organizations, community members & libraries to teach people how to shuck, how to cook, and how to harvest local shellfish. Set up a lesson with us and learn why we work so hard to “bivalvify” the waters around Martha’s Vineyard.

2024-2025 outreach was supported with funding from NOAA’s eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Program with a focus on inspiring locals and visitors to get out onto the ponds, explore to the benefits of aquaculture, and participate in volunteer science opportunities. Over the course of 62 recurring programs, lessons and larger events, we engaged 2,659 people of all ages about the many facets of aquaculture — public and private, hatchery and field-based. Occurring on the eve of our 50th year, this grant also enabled MVSG to make a number of documentary-style shorts capturing our impact on and around Martha’s Vineyard. They will be available from our website and at programs in the near future.