Our Museum Educators are experienced with all ages and we are happy to adapt our programs to fit the specific developmental needs of your class.

When to Come & What to Request

• Education programs are available Monday – Friday, from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

• Field trips take students through selected areas of the museum for a 30-minute guided tour on specific topics and are limited to 80 people.  You may link up to five areas.

Group Size for Field Trips

• Each  program accommodates up to four groups of 20 people. Programs may run concurrently. We can accommodate a total of 80 people in one field trip, divided into four groups.

Chaperones

• One adult is required for every five children, first grade and younger; one for every 10 children in 2nd through 12th grade is required and given free admission.

Fees

• Admission is $2 per child up to age 12, $4 for older children, due on day of program.

• Required chaperones admitted at no charge. Additional adults pay $7 each.

• There is no Admission charge for Calvert County School and non-profit groups. Additional adults pay $7 each.

• All groups will be required to pay program fees prior to your scheduled visit.

• Guided programs are charged per number of people and programs chosen. See form below.

For Example:
You are bringing 58 people which you will divide into three even groups.
You are choosing 4 programs. Your program fee will be $60.
These fees are per visit.

Bus Parking

• After group drop-off, bus parking is available in our parking lot.

Lunch Facilities

• Groups may eat in a covered, outdoor picnic area.

• In inclement weather, bag lunches may be eaten on mezzanine level through prior arrangement with the Education Department.

How to Schedule a Field Trip

We recommend that you register as early as possible to reserve your desired date by calling 410-326-2042 ext. 41 or email. Our Group Services Coordinator will help you work out the details of your visit. When you call, please have the following information handy:

• Name of the school/organization

• Contact person with address, phone number and email

• Number of classes/children

• Age/Grade level

• Calendar with preferred dates

After making your reservation, you will receive a registration packet in the mail.

Seasonal Programs

The following field trips are available from May through October.

OFF-SITE PROGRAMS

FOSSIL FIELD PROGRAM: These focused field trips are designed for maximum experiential learning. Program fee is $25; cost per participant $6. This two-hour program is designed for a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 25. Differentiated instruction makes this experience appropriate for third grade and up.

Our off-site fossil field experience invites students to explore the evidence of that ancient past for themselves. Working at a local beach, students will collect a field sample, identify and label what they have found, and learn to interpret the clues about the past. Dress for adventure!

LORE OYSTER HOUSE: The Lore Oyster House, recently renovated to return it to mint condition as a working oyster processing plant, is located a half-mile south of the museum and offers students the opportunity to become familiar with one of the economic engines of the 19th and early 20th century in Southern Maryland. Opened in 1922, it operated until 1978 processing and shipping oysters all over the United States. In this program students will learn the history of the oyster house, “follow the oyster” as it moves from the dock to the shipping crate, learn the ecology of the oyster, try their hand at tonging for oysters off the dock, try “shucking” and loading an oyster, and generally experience all of the various tasks involved in the process. ($25 program fee)

Guided Field Trip Program Topics

The Discovery Room: Groups may reserve this special, child-friendly space for their field trip; limited to 25 people at one time. Students can find a fossil in our beach box and using our interactive touch screen, identify the fossil they want to keep. They can learn to tie basic knots on our knot board; hoist a sail in the sailing skiff, and learn how to steer a boat. Climb the lighthouse and visit the keeper’s cottage. Learn about the creatures in our aquarium, touch a terrapin or horseshoe crab, and get a close-up look at starfish and whelks. There are six Activity Boxes available that may be checked out and taken up to the Discovery Loft that offer small groups of two to four students a chance to learn about creatures from the salt marsh, signal flags, navigational charts, fossils, and Native Americans.

Skates and Rays Exhibit: Located the lower exhibit gallery, this exhibit features "Secrets of the Mermaid's Purse: Skates & Rays of the Mid-Atlantic." In addition to the large tank holding skates and rays, the exhibit includes a skate “nursery,” a touch screen information station, and an interactive photo wall.

Animals in the Estuary: The Estuarium takes visitors on a naturalist’s journey up the Patuxent River, from the Chesapeake Bay to the tidal freshwater reaches of the River. Fourteen aquariums ranging up to 3,500 gallons bring you face to face with some of the bay region’s most famous residents, making the preservation of this unique and fragile resource real and immediate concern. Sea horses, crabs and fish of all stripes will amaze you. Also includes the otter habitat where our two frisky otters, Bubbles and Squeak, cavort to the delight of visitors.

The Marsh Walk: This outdoor exhibit is a living study of the plant and animal communities that inhabit saltwater, freshwater, and upland marshes. Watching for crabs, fish, and water birds, smelling bay-leaves and petting cattails, helps visitors understand the importance and distinctive beauty of the wetlands. In addition to observing the marsh, students will learn how to read clues animals leave behind to find out more about each animal and bird. Students will also have the opportunity to visit with our two North American river otters and observe their playful interaction and response to people.

Drum Point Lighthouse: Visit the Drum Point Lighthouse built in 1883 and see what it might have been like to be part of the lighthouse keeper’s family. The screw pile cottage-style lighthouse is completely furnished, and one of only three cottage style lighthouses remaining on the bay. Students will learn about the amazing Fresnel lens and how it dramatically improved the lighthouse technology of the day. Accessibility to the lighthouse interior is limited; a video tape discussing the lighthouse is available.

Fossils of Calvert Cliffs: Ten million years ago Southern Maryland was a watery world inhabited by whales, crocodiles and giant sharks. Working with museum educators in the fossil hall, students will learn where the Miocene Epoch fits into deep time, and how the famous Calvert Cliffs formed. They will be able to talk with our trained volunteers in the fossil prep lab and learn how paleontologists collect these specimens and use them as clues to study the past.

Work Boats on the Patuxent: In our collection, we have remarkable models of the many different types of boats that have plied the waters of the Patxuent River and Chesapeake Bay for the past 400 years. This program focuses on the boats that, over time, have worked the waters of the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay by focusing on our model collection and the boats in our small craft shed.

Trades in a Maritime Community: In our maritime hall, we highlight the work of boat builders, carpenters, sail makers, blacksmiths, waterman, and many other trades related to a maritime community. Museum educators will talk with students about these trades as shown though our collections.