The Schoodic Education Adventure (SEA) program was recently featured on Maine Public as part of the new nature-focused Borelis series.

The immersive, three-day SEA experience invites middle schoolers to connect with the environment in an engaging and memorable way – with the tidepools and forests of Acadia’s Schoodic Peninsula as their outdoor classroom.

Developing tomorrow’s stewards is one of Friends of Acadia’s core strategic priorities, and the SEA program is an immersive and powerful approach. Those young students then grow up to be future stewards – of Acadia and wherever else life takes them. That’s why Friends of Acadia has helped fund the SEA program, with support from L.L.Bean, since 2006.

Thanks to our members, we were able to increase this support for 2023 to fund a year-round teaching assistant and five seasonal teaching assistants for spring and fall, when the SEA program is in session.

During the summer, the full-time teaching assistant helped with preparations for the SEA program, virtual programs, worked with multiple teacher workshops, at-risk youth groups from urban areas, and the program’s summer school pilot with local schools.

In 2022, the SEA program served 461 students and 69 teachers. This year, it’s estimated that SEA will serve 737 students and 101 teachers – an additional 276 students and 32 teachers over 2022.

It’s a high point coming out of Covid, when in-person programming wasn’t happening. But during that period, Acadia National Park Education Coordinator Kate Petrie and her team did an incredible job developing virtual programs, enabling those connections to the park to continue even when students were learning from classrooms elsewhere in Maine or the country.

Friends of Acadia supported that effort with funds to acquire equipment and expand virtual educational programing.

Virtual programs continue during SEA’s “off season,” and Kate Petrie notes interest in virtual programming for this coming winter is also up.

We’re delighted to see the SEA program continue to grow and garner attention for the incredible work of the teachers and staff who engage students in lasting and impactful ways.

“A lot of the things we’ve done, we’ve talked about in science class,” said Frances, one of the students featured in the Maine Public episode. “But you get to do it hands on instead of our teacher telling us what it is.”

“You remember it better, because you actually get to figure it our for yourself,” added Anika, another student.

See the full story on Maine Public: Acadia National Park’s outdoor classroom

Read more about Schoodic Education Adventure: 30 Years at SEA: Schoodic Education Adventure Has Connected Middle-School Students to Acadia’s Forests and Coastline for Three Decades