Schools programs are available on Sapelo Island on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Programs are limited to 40 students and chaperones. Programs include science-based interpretive tour of Sapelo Island and an introduction to its rich historical and cultural legacy.
The Reserve’s Education Lab on Sapelo Island houses a 40-seat classroom with audio-visual capabilities as well as a wet lab equipped with work stations, microscopes, stereoscopes, and aquariums.
Book early before available dates are reserved!
Expand the topics below to see a sample of the different programs the Reserve can provide. Additional activities or topics can be developed a at the group leader’s request. Brochures, area maps, and other literature are available for visiting groups.
Students will explore the engine that drives the salt marsh ecosystem. Students will culture bacteria in nutrient agar and learn of their vital role in the salt marsh ecosystem and in our everyday lives. Students will use plankton tows to collect plankton samples and examine them using microscopes and learn of the rich diversity of microscopic organisms that inhabit our tidal water systems and record their findings using custom data sheets. Students will discuss the role of these organisms in the salt marsh ecosystems and their importance to human society. Students will learn how global climate change and water quality can adversely affect the ocean microorganisms and its affects to the human population.
Students will explore the more charismatic mega fauna of the reserve through hands on interpretation. Students will learn about sea turtles, manatees, North Atlantic Right Whales, bottlenose dolphins, pygmy sperm whales, horseshoe crabs, shorebirds and a host of other organisms that inhabit our coastal waters. This program combines images with hands-on artifacts for students to explore the complex lives of these fascinating creatures.
Students will explore the open beach and tidal ecosystems. Students will learn about geology, interstitial in-fauna and the rich abundance of wildlife in our coastal systems including bivalves, gastropods, sea jellies, bottlenose dolphins, manatees, loggerhead sea turtles and the north Atlantic right whales and much more. Students will also learn about how climate change is affecting coastal ecosystems, and how various pollutants are affecting the natural coastal ecosystems. Students have the opportunity to participate in pulling fish and or shrimp seines to discover the near shore biodiversity of aquatic organisms and use pumps and sieves to discover some of Sapelo’s more hidden wildlife.
Students will learn about the rich ecology of a S.E. barrier island through the exploration of our one (1) mile nature trail. The students will be able to transition from the ancient Pleistocene era formations to the current Holocene formations. Students will learn about the flora and fauna that make up a typical barrier island and how the ecology of an island affects the history of its inhabitants. The program will span the biologically rich maritime forest, through the salt marsh, salt pans, tidal creeks, dune systems and will terminate onto the open beach. Students will learn about invasive species and the threats to the environment caused by global climate change.
Students will conduct experiments of the Reserve’s estuarine waters from Doboy Sound’s tidal creeks to the Atlantic Ocean. Students will learn how values such as salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and temperature affect the organisms that inhabit our coastal waters. Students will learn how to use SWMP (System Wide Monitoring Program) data apply it to local issues and its use in the classroom.
Students will learn about our near shore fish species through hand’s on interactions. Students will use cast nets and fish seines to collect species for study. Students will learn to identify the features of the various fish species and how to interpret there uses. Students will learn the differences between sharks and rays and bony fishes and many of the special adaptations of our coastal fish.
Contact our Education Program Team early to book your School Group’s day on Sapelo.
