Summer in the Sanctuary: Discovery, Exploration, and Hands-On Learning

This year’s Summer in the Sanctuary education series at Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary (TBNMS) brought together curious kids and passionate educators for a season filled with exploration, creativity, and underwater adventure. The TBNMS Education Team offered three programs—Archaeology Adventure, Learn to Snorkel, and Underwater Robot Academy—participants immersed themselves in the natural and cultural heritage of the Great Lakes while developing new skills both above and below the water. And as a bonus, every participant walked away with an exclusive Summer in the Sanctuary T-shirt to commemorate their experience.

Underwater Robot Academy

WOW – 18 middle school students dove into the world of marine technology during the sold-out Underwater Robot Academy 3-day camp. Over a total of 15 hours, teams of budding engineers learned about remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and built their own robot from scratch.

Campers designed and assembled PVC frames, soldered components to printed circuit boards, and carefully engineered buoyancy and tether systems—skills typically used by scientists working in underwater research. On the final day, six teams completed their builds just in time for a friendly end-of-camp competition, where participants put their robots to the test in real-world challenges.

Learn to Snorkel

Throughout the summer, the sanctuary hosted four sessions of Learn to Snorkel, welcoming nearly 50 participants ages 8–17. For many, it was their first step into the underwater world.

Held inside the sanctuary’s unique Marine Technology Training Tank—a 550,000-gallon, 16-foot-deep tank originally part of the historic Fletcher Paper Mill—each session introduced participants to snorkel safety, breathing techniques, mask clearing, and finning.

This program embodies one of the sanctuary’s core goals: helping youth experience the Great Lakes near, in, on, and under the water.

Archaeology Adventure

In early August, the sanctuary welcomed 35 young explorers, ages 8–13, for two sessions of Archaeology Adventure. Designed to bring maritime archaeology to life, the program blended visual aids, tactile activities, and exhibit exploration to give participants a hands-on understanding of how archaeologists study shipwrecks.

Campers toured archaeology-themed exhibits, practiced site documentation, learned the parts of a ship, and analyzed artifacts. Highlights included “excavating” cookies to learn about stratigraphy and crafting clay pots—then breaking and reassembling them—to understand how archaeologists reconstruct history. The program invited kids to get their hands dirty while discovering the science behind the sanctuary’s ongoing research.