Biology

Maritime Gloucester kicks off Shark Week with a great experiential learning craft that's as fun as it is educational! Visitors of all ages are invited to participate in the Shark Week Chalkquarium! Drop by for this free event to draw a "Great White Chalk" and other life-sized sharks and rays on the pavement around Maritime Gloucester! All of our regularly-scheduled drop-in programs will also be shark-themed until August 10.

Discover one of Gloucester's most vital ecosystems - the salt marsh. Learn about all of the wildlife that depend on it for survival, and investigate its importance for coastal communities. Get up close with some salt marsh flora and fauna, and play a game to learn more about what it take. For kids ages 6-10.

Maritime Gloucester invites kids to a vacation week session where they'll make a 'Rube Goldberg' machine - part of a week full of educational sessions during February vacation! Cartoonist Rube Goldberg was known for drawing complex yet impractical machines, involving multiple steps to accomplish simple tasks.  After looking at Goldberg’s humorous comics for inspiration, students will engineer a Rube Goldberg machine.  Using marbles, Lego bricks, wooden blocks, dominoes, and much more, we’ll build and test intricate machines as we learn about energy, momentum, and engineering.

Maritime Gloucester invites kids in grades 2-5 to a vacation week session about the structures and their limits - part of a week full of educational sessions during April vacation! What's the biggest structure you can build using toothpicks and styrofoam?  Can you construct a sturdy fort from newspaper?  What's the heaviest thing a bendy straw structure can support?