While all 60 of our educational field trips are excellent, it's our
Top 10 Overnights that have made us famous. There's just something about waking up
below the decks of a historic tall ship or anchored in a quiet cove on Catalina Island or
in a cabin by a babbling mountain stream that helps combine standards-based
curriculum with the building of life-long memories.
The Ocean Institute - where experience is the teacher!
 1. Sea Floor Explorer Overnight
Grades 6 - 8
Students investigate the geology of the sea floor, then sleep in the Ocean Institute's giant tent cabin beside the breaking waves. Students build ROVs (remotely operated vehicles), investigate cores, and conduct "deep" investigations aboard the R/V Sea Explorer.
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2. Watershed Science Overnight
Grade 5 (NEW!)
Spend the night working in the Ocean Institute's Watershed Lab investigating biodiversity, water quality and human impact. Students use pogo-stick samplers to collect soil cores, conduct chemical testing and sort benthic sea life as part of a research project.
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4. Life in the Abyss Overnight
Grades 4 - 6
Sea life in our aquariums takes on a fun new dimension after sunset. Students learn about nocturnal animal adaptations by dissecting a cow eye and studying glowing plankton. Students explore the effects of pressure as they observe Styrofoam cups shrink when sent 1 000' below the R/V Sea Explorer.
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5. Catalina Island Ecology Safari
Grades 4 - 8
Sleep aboard a 65-foot vessel anchored in a serene Catalina Island cove. Students snorkel to identify reef fish, investigate mud flat ecology, study nocturnal life using a squid light, engage in a geology hike and wake up to a pancake breakfast and catch-and-release fishing.
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6. California Time Capsule Overnight
Grade 4
At the Lazy W Ranch, see how California has changed by experiencing life as a Native American, mission worker and Forty-Niner. Students enjoy building a Native American shelter, making adobe bricks, a nd panning for gold in a mountain stream.
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7. Chaparral to Ocean Science School
Grades 5 - 6
Students spend two nights in rustic cabins at the Lazy W Ranch, and a day at the Ocean Institute, omparing five of California's diverse ecosystems. Students identify insects in a stream, measure abiotic factors in the chaparral, sing around a campfire, and conduct population studies at the tidepools.
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8. "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" Overnight
Grade 5
Desperately seeking work after the American Revolution, students "sign on" to a merchant ship hoping to make a profit despite Algerian Pirates. Students use longboats and signal flags to collect intelligence, learn to defend the s hip, and load "negotiated" cargo.
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9. Before the Mast Overnight
Grades 4 - 5
Like R.H. Dana, students must handle the challenges of early California after a difficult "voyage" around Cape Horn. Student crews row ashore to collect hides, brace yards for a changing wind, and work to earn respect from the salty First Mate.
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10. Passage to the Mother Lode
Grade 4
In search of riches in California, students offload cargo in "San Francisco," pan for gold in sands from the "Sacramento" delta, and get caught in a Gold Rush debate between the captain and the ship's agent.
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