Inspiring Passion for Conservation “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela


SeaWorld is wholly unique: it’s part zoo, part aquarium, and part theme park. Tat means that if your child is one of the hundreds of thousands that visit the three


parks each year, their experience could be entirely different than the next field trip. Kids might spend the day studying and riding some of the world’s most renowned roller coasters, learning complex physics principles. A field trip might hop between exhibits learning about adaptation, conservation, and animal behavior. Or classrooms might welcome one of the thousands of annual outreach presentations that SeaWorld conducts across the country, learning from live Animal Ambassadors including penguins, alligators, lemurs, eagles, and more.


“Educating people about marine life was the core goal when founding SeaWorld in 1964,” says SeaWorld’s corporate curator of conservation and education Bill Street. “It’s our job to share our passion and knowledge about animals, every day. We strive to help guests and students understand that their everyday actions impact the environment, teach them the effects of those actions, and inspire them to help protect our world.”


SeaWorld’s more than 200 education staff come from a variety of different backgrounds, “as diverse as our visitors,” says Street. Most staff have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in either science or education, and have been pooled from across the globe. Some grew up in SeaWorld’s summer camp program, became counselors, and now work there full time; while others were school teachers fresh out of college, but quickly moved to SeaWorld for the freedom and opportunities that experiential education presents.


Te Parks’ educators leverage the ADDIE system to develop their variety of programs, working through the five phases of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. “All the programs are designed to complement what’s being taught in the classroom


Photo courtesy of SeaWorld


and to align with state standards and national benchmarks for science literacy,” says Street. “Te phenomenal benefit we have with three destinations is that, in practice, we have three different “laboratories” in three different regions of the country. So when one park discovers certain strengths of a new workshop or presentation, they share it with the other two parks to improve the programs at all three.”


State and national education standards are always evolving, and students’ priorities and learning styles are growing and changing rapidly by generation. As part of the greater community of all zoos and aquariums, SeaWorld has the immense responsibility to inspire their visiting students with passion about conservation and wildlife. “I’m incredibly optimistic about our youth today,” says Street. “Tey’re so passionate about wildlife and they have an inspiring ability to find causes and issues in the wild that they care about, organize a group of like-minded individuals, and accomplish things we could never have dreamed of when we were their age. It’s amazing to be a part of that equation.”

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8