More online events and activities to come -- please check back or subscribe to the Octopress, our monthly email newsletter.
PTMSC lectures and presentations - watch the recordings
Our lecture series, The Future of Oceans, draws on the commitment of professional researchers and educators across all academic spectrums to help define and inspire the health of our oceans. The recordings of the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons are on our YouTube channel.
The most recent lecture was "Preventing Extinction – the Story of Southern Resident Orcas", by Cindy Hansen, presented on June 12, 2022.
We also partner with Jefferson County Marine Resources Committee in a series of online presentations, with the recordings also on our YourTube channel. See above for the upcoming presentation on June 21, 2022.
Visit our YouTube channel for the Lectures and Presentations playlist
The Art of Water - Call for Submissions
Water shapes our world, our imagination, and moves us to create. We invite you to collaborate with us in our partnership with Barbara Krystal of the University of Washington, in a project celebrating WATER. Following the spirit of community science, THE ART OF WATER PROJECT honors public scholarship and carries that inclusivity into the realm of the arts & humanities. We welcome displaying your creative work in the online gallery: theartofwater.global. Exhibits include: Music, Material Art, Photography, Performance, Film, and Written Verse.
Submissions are accepted via this Google form. For any questions contact: Barbara Krystal at theartofwater.global@gmail.com or bjk9@uw.edu
Museum Mysteries
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to dive into the ocean depths like a sperm whale, or playfully chase fish like an otter? Our activity “Museum Mystery” will give you a chance to explore these fun ideas with a few of our museum specimens. You can choose to be creative with your imaginative story, follow the route of an investigative scientist, or both!
Feel free to share your story through words or pictures, whichever you prefer. We’d love to see what stories you come up with, so please submit your story via this form: Museum Mystery Stories!
Ready to start solving? Click here!
Snowflakes and Coloring Pages
Enjoying the holiday spirit? Us too! Get crafty and check out these ocean-inspired coloring sheets & snowflakes for a surefire way to keep you celebrating the Salish SEAson!
Parents and guardians, please supervise the snowflake activity. The designs are intricate and require the use of sharp implements.
Thank you to Bri Gabel for sharing her incredible snowflake designs, and to former PTMSC AmeriCorps member Mariah Vane for the beautiful coloring sheets.
Download the snowflake PDF here. Download the coloring pages PDF here.
A Month's Worth of Scavenger Hunts
During August we held weekly scavenger hunts, with a new theme each week
Enjoy your own scavenger hunts where you live!
The weather outside is lovely, so let's go on an adventurous scavenger hunt to see what there is to discover! Explore new and different habitats and learn about nature where you live. Send us photos (or tag us on Instagram) with what you found or of yourself out on the hunt for these awesome items!
Remember to be a good steward of nature! Leave natural objects where you found them, pick up any trash you see, and don’t step on any plants.
Check out each week's Scavenger Hunt:
Geology Scavenger Hunt
Tide Pool Scavenger Hunt
Forest Scavenger Hunt
Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt
Beach Walk Scavenger Hunt
Plastic Free: PTMSC Edition
Plastic Free July is over, but the need to reduce plastic waste isn't!
Plastic Free July is a global movement with the goal of helping individuals refuse single use plastics! This movement provides us with the opportunity to look at what we are throwing away and see how we can do better! Join us for weekly challenges throughout the month of July and see what improvements you can make. Let’s be part of the solution, together!
July may be over but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to reduce our plastic waste! Check out our PTMSC Plastic Free July Webpage for inspiration, and let us know how you are continuing to be a part of the solution!
1, 2, 3 Plastic Scavenger Hunt!
Stuck inside due to the rainy weather? Let's go on a scavenger hunt in your own house to find what plastics we come face-to-face with in our daily lives!
Find the worksheet here!
Virtual Low Tide Walks
We had a great summer in 2020 sharing the low tides with you!
See our Instagram stories from all the walks, saved in Virtual LTW highlights
If you would like to join us in 2021 for a low tide walk at the beach here at Fort Worden, visit our Low Tide Walks page.
If you post your interesting finds on Instagram, don't forget to tag us @ptmarinescictr!
Orca Skeleton ARTiculation!
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, PTMSC hosted a community Orca ARTiculation. Members of our online community helped us recreate the skeleton of PTMSC’s orca (“Hope”) from the comforts of their own home. Click here to see what we created!
The fun hasn’t ended, though! Click here to access line drawings of all the bones from our original ARTiculation project. You can download some or all of the bones, then decorate and create your own ARTiculation!
We encourage you to get creative! Feel free to use the image files as coloring sheets, paint them digitally, or recreate the bones in the real world using found or recycled materials! The possibilities are endless! We can’t wait to see what you create, so please share and tag us at @ptmarinescictr!
Interested in learning more about the story of Hope, the orca featured in this project? Click here to discover what we know about her life, her stranding, and PTMSC’s original Orca Project.
Nature Break: Sound Mapping
Everyone’s heard the advice to stop and smell the roses but what about stopping and listening to the sounds of nature and your neighborhood? You might be surprised at what you hear when you focus on just one sense! Making a sound map can be a great way to keep track of what’s in the environment around you. What might be something nearby that you can hear, but not see?
Read more and get started here!
Take a (Nature) Break
Nature journaling is a practice we often use in PTMSC education programs and can easily be done at home. We're going to be posting prompts and ideas for journaling and encourage you to follow along and share what you create by tagging us on Instagram: @ptmarinescictr, #mynaturejournal.
Check out PTMSC Education Coordinator Carolyn's blog post with some great ideas to get your started, including directions for a DIY journal.
We are sharing online K-12 learning resources with activities that can be done at home, or in nearby neighborhood natural areas. If you do choose to go outside, please be sure to keep yourself safe and follow current public health guidelines including practicing social distancing; stay home if you are sick.
Learn Online - Free courses, webinars, informative sites, etc. about the ocean and marine science:
Or stay inside - and help contribute to conservation!
