Marine education center seeks funding to sustain operations

After losing crucial federal funding, officials at a local education center are calling on community partners and the City of St. Petersburg to help keep its programs running.

For nearly 20 years, the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science has partnered with the City of St. Petersburg to operate the Clam Bayou Marine Education Center. The education center is located in a historic home on four acres of waterfront land overlooking Boca Ciega Bay. The center offers coastal field trips for K-12 young students and professional development, career explorations and environmental stewardship events for teachers, college students and community groups.

USF’s College of Marine Science has leased the property from the City of St. Petersburg since 2004 to host its education and outreach programming, helping USF effectively triple its community outreach and programming capabilities. According to program coordinators, USF has maintained the building and operated courses and camps, while the City has maintained the grounds. USF leaders are now asking the City and high-profile community partners to step up and help keep the education center alive.

“I have not seen another place where there’s anything like this, and every time I mention this program, people say, ‘Oh, my goodness, it would be so great to have a program like this,’” said Dr. Peter Betzer, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of USF’s College of Marine Sciences. Betzer and his wife have financially supported the Clam Bayou Marine Education Center in the past, including a recent donation of a solar panel array to help significantly lower electricity costs, but said the support the center needs goes beyond its current endowment and donor base.

Clam Bayou Marine Education Center is located in a historic home on four acres of waterfront land overlooking Boca Ciega Bay in St. Petersburg. Photo: Ashley Morales.

The longest-running and most popular program at the Clam Bayou center is its Oceanography Camp for Girls, a three-week summer ocean science exploration program where Pinellas County teens work with USF graduate students to get hands-on experience in oceanography and marine biology. The goal is to inspire and motivate girls to consider career opportunities in the sciences. 

“They’re learning how we know what we know about the ocean, how to make decisions,” said Dr. Teresa Greely, Director of Education and Outreach at USF’s College of Marine Science and program operator at Clam Bayou. “They have some base to make decisions, not just as consumers but as citizens and stewards of the ocean.”

Since its inception, more than 1,500 teens have taken part in the Oceanography Camp for Girls. Those who support the program say the impact it has on the youth who participate has a ripple effect far beyond the walls of the education center.

“I’ve gotten letters saying ‘I don’t understand this; my daughter shows up sweaty, dirty, muddy, exhausted and she’s thrilled! What’s going on?’” laughed Betzer. “There are many people we have gone through this program that are out there transforming their little corner of the world. That’s amazing.”

Dr. Teresa Greely, Director of Education and Outreach at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science and program operator at Clam Bayou Marine Education Center, said young students who visit the center collect plankton in the waters of the Boca Ciega Bay outside and bring the samples back inside to look at them under a microscope, igniting a passion for marine science through hands-on learning. Photo: Ashley Morales.

While Greely oversees and operates much of the programming that takes place at the education center, she said having graduate students work directly with local youth is invaluable to the camps, field trips and the grad students themselves.

“They’re learning how to be mentors,” said Greely. “They’re learning how to communicate and teach the science that they do. These are the life skills that are not part of the typical technical training to be a scientist or a medical doctor. If you can leave an outstanding graduate program with your terminal degrees and know how to relate outside of your science community to youth to teachers, that’s the special sauce.”

The education center has also been selected for the NOAA Gulf Bay Watershed Education and Training program in recent years, which provides funding to bring South St. Petersburg’s elementary scholars from Title I schools to discover, explore and experience hands-on coastal field trips and stewardship activities. 

“This is where the learning starts and hopefully turns into a passion,” said Sandrine Mason, a teacher at Maximo Elementary School. “Being a Title 1 school limits our opportunities, and the grant we secured for this field trip was invaluable.”

Betzer and Greely say for many of the students, these field trips are the first time the young children see themselves as scientists with a potential future working in STEM.

“It’s transformative for the young scholars that are involved,” said Greely. “There’s certainly the need for sustained funding so that teachers can rely on being able to bring their students because they get so much momentum and sincere motivation beyond that one-day experience.”

The Clam Bayou Marine Education Center has seen community support in recent years. It was chosen as the class project for the Leadership St. Pete Class of 2022. As part of the project, LSP participants helped the education center develop a new logo, installed artificial grass outside the building and donated 10 new outdoor tables. However, Greely says funding is still needed to cover the cost of student transportation and lunch for field trips, staffing, supplies, overhead, chartering research vessels for the summer camp and the costly oceanographic equipment students and teachers work with in the center’s lab.

“It’s about leaving a positive, lasting impression,” said Greely. “We hope that our multiplying factor is that people are going to share their experience here, whether it’s the graduate students replicating the program or the participants themselves. We need to ensure we can continue to not only educate but advance ocean literacy for years to come.”