Last weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the Florida Marine Science Educators Association (FMSEA) annual conference, and honestly? It did not disappoint. From hands-on workshops to keynote speakers that left the whole room buzzing, this year’s conference was a reminder of why I love this community so much.
Read more: FMSEA 2026: Connecting the Dots from Educators to EstuariesWalking into a Whale
Let’s start with the most dramatic first impression possible: stepping outside to find a massive inflatable sperm whale parked on the lawn. I’m talking life-size. It was impossible to miss — and impossible not to love. The whale served as a walk-through experience, and getting to stand inside and look up at the baleen plates and stomach chamber was genuinely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done at a professional conference. If you’ve never experienced marine anatomy from the inside out, I highly recommend it. My students would absolutely lose their minds over this.
Keynote and the Whale Sharks
The keynote presentation was delivered on a big stage — fitting for the big ideas being shared. The speaker gave a stunning talk accompanied by breathtaking underwater photography, including a jaw-dropping image of a whale shark that filled the entire screen. Standing up there gesturing to that image, it was clear this was someone who lives and breathes ocean science. The whole room was captivated, and it set a powerful tone for the rest of the day.
My Talk: Bringing Ecosystems into the Classroom
I was thrilled to present my session on the Estuary Ambassadors program and how I’ve been working to bring living ecosystems directly into the classroom. The talk covered the full journey: from the initial spark of the idea, to collecting field trips where students get into the estuary and experience it firsthand, to building and maintaining a live estuary tank.
One of my favorite slides to present is always the “Collecting Field Trip” section — because it captures something I feel really deeply about. Getting students out into the world, letting them ask questions in real time, and then giving them agency in deciding which animals come back to the classroom with them? That’s experiential learning at its best. It’s not just about the tank. It’s about the whole ecosystem of experiences surrounding it.
The room was engaged and full of questions, and I left feeling genuinely energized. One of those sessions where you walk out thinking, okay, we’re onto something here.
Saturday Workshops: Hands-On Everything
Saturday’s workshops were where things got really fun. A few highlights:
Suturing on Shark Skin (Sort Of) One workshop featured participants practicing suturing techniques on realistic silicone pads — the kind used in medical training. Watching educators lean over the table, instruments in hand, carefully working through the motions, it was a powerful reminder that hands-on skills matter in marine science education too. Shark research involves real field techniques, and giving teachers a taste of that is brilliant professional development.
Weighing In: Citizen Science and Data Collection Another workshop had participants using hanging scales and collection nets to practice the kind of morphometric data collection used in fish and shark research. Watching someone hoist that scale up with a net suspended below it — apple included as a stand-in specimen, apparently — was both funny and genuinely instructive. These are the exact techniques students can use in citizen science projects, and having teachers experience them firsthand makes all the difference.
Oyster Restoration and Reef Structure I also got to string up an oyster cluster — and yes, I took a very pleased selfie with it. Oyster reef restoration is such an important part of estuary health, and having tactile materials like these at the conference makes the concepts stick in a way that a PowerPoint slide never quite can. The Estuary Tank Starter Checklist I’ve been developing feels even more relevant after handling these specimens in person.
The FMSEA Community
One of my favorite parts of every marine education conference is the people. This conference was no exception! Getting to connect with the Southwest Florida region crew, snap photos with colleagues in front of the regional map display, and meet researchers and educators who are all working toward the same goal — it fills a cup that the regular school year can sometimes drain pretty fast.
There’s also something special about being a presenter and an attendee at the same conference. You get to share your own work and then turn right around and be inspired by someone else’s. That’s the loop that keeps this work going.
Looking Ahead
FMSEA left me with a notebook full of ideas and a renewed sense of purpose. This year I’m walking away thinking about how to expand the Estuary Ambassadors program, incorporate more citizen science data collection into student field experiences, and keep building the kinds of lessons that get students off their chairs and into the world.
