Marine Education Presentations

NECWA strongly believes that educational outreach is an important piece of species conservation and management. We provide meaningful and engaging educational programs for schools, organizations, and the public in an effort to help people better understand and connect to the unique marine wildlife that lives off the coast of New England. We customize our programs to create engaging classroom and community events for learners and nature enthusiasts of all ages. Whenever possible, we incorporate our research findings into our programs to support the learning experience.

  • Choose from a variety of program topics that focus on the unique marine wildlife that live along our New England coastlines.
  • Incorporate our hands-on learning activities and educational displays into each presentation that support colorful and informative PowerPoint presentations.
  • Create a unique presentation that is geared to the specific age level and focus of the participants.
  • Modify the content of the presentation to focus on specific classroom and curriculum needs.
  • All presentations address National Science Standards.
Krill Carson teaching about ocean sunfish
Our inflatable whale named Salt

Want a really different presentation? Schedule one that includes NECWA's life size inflatable model of the humpback whale Salt. Kids of all ages love this! Students can view Salt from the inside as well as the outside as this is a "walk in" inflatable (Covid restrictions permitting). This model helps students appreciate her immense size (45 feet in length) and incredible beauty.

School PTO’s! All of our presentations can be used for school assembly programs for middle school and high school students.

Contact us to learn more! Call 508-566-0009 or email us at contact@necwa.org to discuss or schedule one of NECWA’s coastal marine programs today.

Presentations Available

  • Not a Baby Whale, the Life of the Ocean Sunfish
  • Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises in New England Waters
  • Salt, the Humpback Whale, includes our life-sized inflatable model
  • Turtle Time! The diamondback terrapin, neighbors in our marshes
  • Coastal Marine Wildlife off New England
  • Long-term Studies on Humpback Whales in the Western North Atlantic
  • The North Atlantic Right Whale: a Species in Peril
  • The New England Basking Shark and Ocean Sunfish Project
  • The Secret life of a Gentle Giant, the Basking Shark
  • Seabirds of New England
A NECWA intern teaching about the diamondback terrapin

Hands On & Auditory Materials

  • Whale baleen - humpback, finback and minke baleen
  • Whale teeth - sperm whale, false killer whale, and Atlantic white-sided dolphin
  • Prey items - preserved copepods, krill, and sand lance
  • Barnacles from a humpback whale
  • Whale bones - including skulls, lower jaws, ribs, and vertebrae
  • Shark jaws and shark teeth
  • Ocean Sunfish skin and bones
  • Recordings of marine mammals, including humpback song

Educational Activities

  • The Art of Filter Feeding. Appropriate for pre-K to grade 7.
    Using hand-made models of basking sharks and North Atlantic right whales, participants learn how basking sharks and right whales filter zooplankton from the ocean.
  • The Importance of Blubber! Appropriate for grades pre-K and up.
    Children learn the importance of blubber as a form of insulation used by marine mammals. With one hand in a blubber glove (made from vegetable oil) and the other in a glove without any insulation, children immerse their gloves in ice cold water. It's easy to learn how important blubber is to marine mammals for it keeps them warm in a cold environment. Also discussed is the use of blubber as a secondary energy source during times of fasting or low prey abundance.
  • Photo-identification techniques. Appropriate for grades 5 and above.
    Participants examine photographs of the ventral tail patterns of unknown humpback whales and compare these photos to photos of known individuals in a catalog. Through these activities, participants learn about photo-ID techniques and the information that they provide to long-term research studies.
  • Giants of the Sea. Appropriate for all ages.
    Using a metric measuring tape, participants measure the various lengths of a variety of marine wildlife.