Oregon Sea Grant

Life-long marine science learning

Oregon Sea Grant has a long and rich involvement in marine education, both formal and informal.

Generations of students and their teachers have benefited from Sea Grant marine science education programs at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, with its unique combination of laboratories, classrooms, and public aquarium and exhibit space.

We've provided thousands of graduate and undergraduate students with first-hand learning opportunities in marine science, policy, resource management, and related fields. And uncounted coastal visitors have enjoyed and learned from such popular public programs as our Oregon Coast Quests.

Today, much of our attention is focused on learning just what it is that makes such "free-choice" learning opportunities work, and how they can be improved. In addition to supporting graduate programs in Free-Choice Learning through OSU's Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning, Sea Grant operates the HMSC Visitor Center as a living laboratory. There, scholars and students study the science learning that happens when people choose to visit science museums, zoos, and aquariums in their leisure time.

Since the Free-Choice Learning program's launch in 2004, it has become nationally recognized for its innovation; in 2011, a team led by Sea Grant's Shawn Rowe was awarded a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation - the largest grant ever received by Oregon Sea Grant - to develop a state-of-the-art free-choice learning lab at the HMSC.

People and projects

Free-choice Learning Master's program, OSU

• Lynn Dierking and John Falk, Sea Grant professors of Free-Choice Learning

HMSC Visitor Center, Newport

Program leader (interim): Dr. Shawn Rowe
Nancee Hunter, Education specialist (special projects)
Maureen Collson, program support

• Free-Choice Learning Lab
  • Dr. Shawn Rowe, director
  • Heidi Schmoock, program coordinator
• HMSC Visitor Center
  • Bill Hanshumaker, public marine educator
  • Becca Schiewe, volunteer coordinator
  • Lynne Wright, bookstore manager
  • Mark Farley, exhibits and special projects developer
  • McKenzie Reeves,  education program assistant
• Sea Grant Marine Education Program
  • Tracy Crews, education program coordinator
  • Kathryn Hawes, marine education assistant
  • Cait Goodwin, marine educator/Quest coordinator
• Ornamental Fish Health program
  • Dr. Tim Miller-Morgan, DVM, Extension veterinarian and aquatic animal health specialist
  • Dennis Glaze, aquatic animal health and husbandry

Learn more