Annapolis Maritime Museum: Park Campus

7300 Edgewood Road
Annapolis (off of Bay Ridge Rd.)

(410) 295-0104

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Annapolis Maritime Museum’s Park Campus is a renovated 12-acre waterfront park that accommodates AMM’s ever-expanding education programs. The Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park provides field trips and other educational opportunities for preschoolers through adults. In order to cultivate lifelong environmental literacy, education efforts at AMM begin at an early age and provide a continuum of experiences that cultivate future environmental stewards. Our education programs take place at both our Park Campus and our Museum Campus, as well as off-site and on the water.

  • Field Trips

Hours of Operation

Open dawn to dusk

School Programs

On-Campus Programs:
Pre-K and Kindergarten:
  • Fish and Friends
      Capacity: 15-25 Students (best for 2 – 3 year-olds)
      Cost: $8.00 per child
      Location: Park Campus or off-site
      Time: 45 minutes
      From fins to legs, discover the various body parts that animals need to survive. Engage with fishy friends and see how they are different       from each other and us as well as what makes them the same. Students will meet two animals.
  • Fins, Feet, & Feelers
Capacity: 15-25 Students (best for 4 – 6 year-olds)
Cost: $8.00 per child
Location: Park Campus or off-site
Time: 1 hour
Explore the variety of animals that call an oyster reef home through story time, sensory exploration, hands-on interaction with critters, and a sing-along. Students will meet up to 5 animals.
1st -12th Grade:
Our experienced educators will adapt materials and information to be age-appropriate for different grades. See the recommended grade range next to each station in the Description of Station Choices. Use the chart below to determine how many stations your group can do during your visit.
Time for Trip     # of Students           Price at Park     # of Stations
1 Hour            Up to 40*             $8 / student      2
2 Hour            Up to 80*             $16 / student     4
3 Hour            Up to 100*            $20 / student     3 + 1 Chesapeake Challenge
*Interested in bringing more students? Consider our Chesapeake Challenges (see tab on left) or a Critter Cruise.
  • Oysters 101
You may have known that oysters are filter feeders, but did you also know that they are ecosystem engineers? Investigate how the natural history of the Eastern Oyster makes it an irreplaceable resource for the animals of the Chesapeake Bay along with the humans who harvest them.
Station Choices:
Description of Station Choices
Oyster Reef Animals
Oyster Dissection (+$1/student materials fee)
Harvest Game
Hand Tonging
Erosion Experiment
Suggested Chesapeake Challenge for 3-hour programs: Build a Filter
  • Animal Investigators
As the largest estuary in the country, the Chesapeake Bay supports over 3,600 species of plants and animals. Join us as we explore some of the different fish and invertebrates that call the Bay home and discover their unique adaptations and how they rely on different habitats throughout their life cycles.
Station Choices:
Description of Station Choices
Blue Crab 101
Horseshoe Crab
Oyster Reef Animals
Oyster Dissection (+$1/student materials fee)
Seining (counts for 2 stations)
Suggested Chesapeake Challenge for 3-hour programs: Build a Plankton
 
  • Eco-Explorers
Science doesn’t only happen in labs! Use scientific tools and techniques to collect data and conduct experiments investigating the biotic and abiotic factors that make up the Back Creek ecosystem.
Station Choices:
Description of Station Choices
Watershed Model
Erosion Experiment
Oyster Dissection (+$1/student materials fee)
Water Quality
Seining (counts for 2 stations)
Suggested Chesapeake Challenge for 3-hour programs: Build a Buoy
  • Working the Water
How fast can you harvest a bushel of oysters? Can you catch more than your competition? Find out if you have what it takes to make it in this grueling industry!
Station Choices:
Description of Station Choices
Hand Tonging
Harvest Game
Seining (counts for 2 stations)
Crabbing
Suggested Chesapeake Challenge for 3-hour programs: Build a Boat
  • From Bay to Table
From the muddy bottom of the Bay to your favorite restaurant, it takes a lot of work to make an oyster ready to eat. Follow the journey of these shellfish from harvesting to processing to designing your very own oyster can.
Capacity: Maximum 45 students
Cost: $20 / student (includes materials fees)
Location: Park Campus
Time: 2.5 hours
Includes these stations:
Description of Stations
Hand Tonging
Oyster Dissection- student materials fee incorporated into total cost of program
Harvest Game
Oyster Canning- student materials fee incorporated into total cost of program
  • A Changing Chesapeake: Climate Change Education
The effects of climate change are already being felt here in the Chesapeake region, often more intensely than in other areas of the country. Discover how the people and animals that call the Chesapeake Bay region home are being affected by and adapting to impacts such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, and changing weather patterns, as well as solutions that are being used to tackle this issue.
Capacity: Maximum 60 Students
Cost: $16/ Student
Location: Park Campus
Time: 2 hours
Age: 7th – 12th grade
Includes these stations:
Description of Stations
Surviving Sea Level Rise
Climate Survival Game
Shell Shock
Large Group STEM Option:
  • Chesapeake Challenges
Students use teamwork and engineering skills to take on Bay-themed STEM challenges in small groups.
1 Hour Program:
$8 / student
Maximum 50 students
Includes 1 Challenge
2 Hour Program:
$16 / student
Maximum 100 students
Includes 2 Challenges
Location: Park Campus
Challenge Stations:
Build a Boat
Students plan, build, and test model boats to learn about factors influencing performance such as balance and buoyancy. They discover how the design features of traditional Chesapeake Bay boats such as skipjacks and deadrises impact their function.
Build a Buoy
Students plan, build, and test buoys made of PVC pipes. They discover the many purposes that buoys serve in the Bay and experiment with the factors that make a good buoy such as balance, weight, and cost.
Build a Filter
Students plan, create, and test filters made of 2-liter bottles, coffee filters, sand, gravel, etc. They discuss the difference between physical, chemical, and biological filters and how filtering improves water quality. This program is best for 4th grade and up.
Build a Plankton
Students discover the variety of life forms that are planktonic for part or all of their life cycle. They then create their own plankton out of recycled materials with the goal of having it stay in the middle of the water column.
On the Water Programs:
  • Sail Aboard the Skipjack, Wilma Lee
Set sail aboard AMM’s floating classroom, the historic skipjack, Wilma Lee, to dredge for oysters and experience what life was like living on the water in the 1800s. Test water quality above an oyster reef and see what biodiversity lives below in this immersive, STEM-based program!
Come explore the waterways and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, become familiar with skipjack terminology and watermen tools, and discover your maritime history! Students will be actively engaged in water quality testing, map investigations, and Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) concepts, all while enjoying the beautiful Chesapeake Bay. Dredge for oysters, raise the sails, and feel the Bay breezes aboard the one and only, Wilma Lee!
Our Wilma Lee Education Program is available for school groups, scout troops, Homeschool Co-ops, and other youth groups (5th grade and older). Cost is $18/participant, $500 minimum, for up to 2 hours (35 person max). Wilma Lee programs are available April-October.
  • Sail & STEM
For larger groups, combine a sail onboard Wilma Lee with one of our Chesapeake Challenges.
Cost: $1000 for up to 70 participants (students and adults)
Location: Park Campus
Time: 3.5 Hours (includes time for lunch on land)
Kayaking
Capacity: Best with 8-12 students, max 18 participants (4th grade and up)
Cost: Starting at $18 / Participant
Location: Park Campus
Time: 2 hours minimum
Learn basic kayaking skills and tour Back Creek while discussing the ecology, history, and health of the Chesapeake Bay.
  • Kayaking
Capacity: Best with 8-12 students, max 18 participants (4th grade and up)
Cost: Starting at $18 / Participant
Location: Park Campus
Time: 2 hours minimum
Learn basic kayaking skills and tour Back Creek while discussing the ecology, history, and health of the Chesapeake Bay.
  • Critter Cruise (in partnership with Watermark Cruises)
Capacity: Minimum 40 students
Cost: $14/Student & $18/Adult (* 1 free adult per 20 students)
Location: Annapolis City Dock
Time: 1 hour
Climb aboard the Harbor Queen and spend an hour on the water getting up close and personal with fascinating Chesapeake Bay critters including crabs, fish, and eels! Programs are booked through Watermark at STEM – Watermark (watermarkjourney.com)
  • Chesapeake 101 (in partnership with Watermark Cruises)
Capacity: 15-100 Students
Cost: $18/Student & $23/Adult (1 free adult per 20 students)
Location: Park Campus
Time: 2 hours + 40 minute cruise
Chesapeake 101 includes a 2 hour program at either our Museum or Park campus and a 40 minute narrated cruise on the Harbor Queen. Students may have lunch either at the Park or onboard the Harbor Queen. Programs are booked through Watermark.
Groups of up to 80 students will choose 2 stations and 1 Chesapeake Challenge
Groups of 81 – 100 students will choose 2 Chesapeake Challenges
HARBOR QUEEN CRUISE Students board the Harbor Queen to cruise the waters around the historic Annapolis harbor. History, navigation, and architecture are included in this 40-minute narrated program. Programs are booked through Watermark at STEM – Watermark (watermarkjourney.com)
 
 
Signature Programs:
  • Little Skipjacks
Best for pre-k 4 through 1st grade
Explore the variety of animals that call an oyster reef home through story time, sensory exploration, hands-on interaction with critters, and a sing-along. Students will meet up to five Bay animals.
$200- up to 30 kids, at Park Campus
$250 for up to 30 kids, in-class visit (we come to you)
  • Chesapeake Champions
Best for 2nd – 5th grade
Discover the impact that our actions on land have on the animals living in the Bay and the actions you can take to be a Chesapeake Champion!
Capacity: Maximum 60 students
Cost: $16 / student
Time: 2 hours
Location: Park Campus
Included Stations:
Seining
Erosion
Watershed Model
  • Oyster Education Program
For 5th grade and up
Location: Park Campus
Up to 35 participants (students and adults)- 2.5 hours, $650
Up to 70 participants (students and adults)- 3.5 hours, $1000
Included Stations:
Sail on skipjack, Wilma Lee– Raise the sail, visit an oyster reef, conduct water quality at the reef to assess suitability for oysters
Oyster Reef Animals
Harvest Game