Ocean Exploration Education – Facilitator Training in Dauphin Island

From January 16-18, 2026, the NOAA Ocean Exploration Education Team gathered in Dauphin Island, Alabama, to host a high-energy, three-day facilitator training session. This meeting brought together a specialized team of seven expert ocean exploration teacher professional development facilitators from across the country—ranging from Puerto Rico to California—who collectively bring decades of experience in all sectors of ocean education. Their combined expertise in ocean science and instructional pedagogy bring deep-sea phenomena and discovery alive during NOAA Ocean Exploration teacher professional development workshops. 

Preparing for Spring 2026 Professional Development Workshops

The primary focus of this year’s training was preparing the team to lead the upcoming Oases of Life: Seamounts and Deep-sea Corals teacher professional development workshops at 14 Education Alliance Partner sites around the country later this spring. To ensure a seamless delivery, the Education Team led facilitators through a full “dry run” of the workshop that includes five student investigations and activities that introduce participants to dynamic geologic and physical processes associated with seamounts and the complex coral and sponge communities that inhabit them. The group practiced the setup, tested each of the hands-on activities and deep-sea models in the workshop agenda, and dove deep into instructional best practices to ensure workshop participants feel comfortable and confident about teaching these lessons in their own educational settings. 

Innovating for the Future

Beyond preparing for spring workshops, the group leveraged their collective and varied ocean education expertise to brainstorm and test future workshop content and design. The Education Team piloted two new maritime heritage lessons developed in collaboration with the National Park Service through a NOAA Ocean Exploration funded project in 2022, collecting ideas and feedback on lesson design and instructional strategies for implementing a new maritime heritage professional development workshop in Spring 2027. The group also held strategic discussions on how to improve and expand the reach of ocean exploration education, exploring ideas for new lessons, new Alliance Partnerships to bring workshops to new audiences, and web design to make it easy to find educational resources.

The group piloted a maritime heritage lesson on site documentation and discussed edits needed and instructional strategies before the lesson is featured in next spring’s teacher workshop. Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration. Download largest version (jpg, 312 KB).

Strengthening Regional Education Connections

Throughout the three-day training, the group still made time for team-building and professional development for all. Educators from Dauphin Island Sea Lab led the group through several activities that highlighted regional ocean science and exploration connections in their programming including a short voyage on Research Vessel Alabama Discovery, the Lab’s floating classroom, and a science seminar on current coral reef research and technology development led by University of Alabama Assistant Professor, Dr. Kenneth Hoadley.

The facilitator team explores Mobile Bay aboard Research Vessel Alabama Discovery. Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration. Download largest version (jpg, 289 KB).

All activities throughout the long weekend provided an excellent opportunity for everyone to learn from each other and strengthen the bond between a group who typically work thousands of miles apart. By the end of the jam-packed three days, the team left tired, but inspired, and better equipped to lead professional development workshops this spring.