Santa Monica Pier Aquarium staff member educating and entertaining a young audience during their field trip. Photo: Heal the Bay

The Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, a community program of Heal the Bay, is a science-based, environmental learning and public education facility located in Santa Monica. The Santa Monica Pier Aquarium offers marine education programs for grades preK-12 students and their teachers. The programs—aligned with the CA science standards—are hands-on and interactive.

Field Trips
Lasting two hours in length during the school year (September - June) and one hour for summer sessions (July - August), field trips to the aquarium include a naturalist-led presentation inside the aquarium. School-year field trips also include an additional naturalist-led presentation on the beach just outside the aquarium doors. (see the Know Before You Go information to prepare for the outdoor beach program). Whether learning about the wonders of the kelp forest, the animals of the tidepools, pollution issues, or a host of other topics, a field trip to the aquarium enhances students' understanding of the ocean and encourages conservation through stewardship

Students have the opportunity to explore in the aquarium including:

• Hands-on interaction with live animals and artifacts from the Santa Monica Bay
• Educational field trip programs include grade-specific, standards-based programs for elementary and middle school classes. Programs can be modified and altered to meet the needs of high school teachers.
• Independent exploration at the shark tank, pier tank, pollution corner, microscope lab, and other aquaria exhibits
• Activity worksheets that are related to the educational presentation topic

Students also have the opportunity to discover the sandy beach environment including (school-year field trips only):

• Searching in and on the sand for “signs of life” and learning about the adaptations that enable them to live in this environment
• Sandy beach ecology
• Observing first hand the human impacts on the coastal environment including a pollution awareness and prevention presentation including storm drain education
• Education field trip programs include a Beach Exploration for preK through 12th grade, or a Beach Clean-up for grades 4 through 12.
• The Key to the Sea program, for grades K-5,  can be substituted for the standard educational field trip program and beach exploration.

The combination of aquarium education and field experience is integral in helping students gain interest in marine science and environmental education, particularly those students who may not be exposed to science curriculum in their classroom settings.

Schedule & Cost
The aquarium hosts two field trips each weekday throughout the traditional school year (September-June): the first from 9:30am to 11:30am, and a second from 12:00noon to 2:00pm. During the summer months (July-August) the aquarium hosts three field trips each weekday: the first from 9am-10am, the second from 10:30am-11:30am and the last from 12pm-1pm. Lasting one hour in length, summer field trips to the aquarium include a naturalist-led presentation inside the aquarium.

The cost of a each class is $150 for a maximum of 60 students for school year fields trips and a maximum of 30 students in the summer; teachers and chaperones are admitted free. Field trips are available on a first-come first-serve basis, so reserve your field trip today!