NEOSEC

Promoting Ocean Literacy in New England

Ocean Literacy Summit

 

The 2025 NEOSEC Ocean Literacy Summit: Knowing the Ocean: 20 Years of Ocean Literacy

October 27-28, 2025

 

The tenth biennial New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative (NEOSEC) Ocean Literacy Summit: Knowing the Ocean:  20 Years of Ocean Literacy will take place in Freeport, ME, on October 27 – 28, 2025 at the beautiful Harraseeket Inn. We will increase understanding and dialog in New England around the Ocean Literacy Principles. The Summit will focus on connecting scientists, educators, and community leaders to critically think about equitable collaboration, share best practices, and provide networking opportunities.

Registration

Conference registration (click here):

  • Full early bird registration, including opening reception, Monday fieldtrips, and Tuesday day of talks is $200.
  • Full registration after 9/22 is $250.
  • Full student registration is $125.
  • One day registration for Tuesday is $150.

Exhibitor Registration (click here):

  • Full members are $300
  • Association/non profit/govt. agency are $325
  • For profit are $350
  • Exhibitor, extra attendee is $150

Limited scholarships are available to help with barriers to attendance, especially for attendees of color or from community organizations.

Endorsed Activity of

Keynote Address by Diana Payne

Diana Payne is an Associate Professor in Residence and the Education Coordinator with Connecticut Sea Grant at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus. She founded the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program and co-leads the Long Island Sound Schools Network and Tri-State Blue Schools network. Diana has held leadership roles in the Sea Grant Education Network (SGEN), National Marine Educators Association (NMEA), and New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative (NEOSEC). She currently serves as Chair of the NMEA Ocean Literacy committee and the NMEA Ocean Decade Working Group. Diana served as Regional Coordinator of the Quahog Bowl, the CT-RI regional of the National Ocean Science Bowl, for 12 years. At the international level, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Copenhagen, Denmark and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Ocean Literacy With All (OLWA), an endorsed program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. In 2023, Diana was appointed to and serves as Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) UNESCO Ocean Literacy Group of Experts (GoE).

The 2025 Ocean Literacy Summit will be at the Harraseeket Inn

We do have a room block at the Harraseeket Inn where the Summit will be held. Rooms are available at $169/night and you can book directly here or contact the hotel.

Other locations may be found around Freeport. 

Things to explore in the area can be found here.

Summit Agenda

Monday, October 27

  • 9 am:  Field trips (see below)
  • 11:30 am:  Registration Opens
  • Noon:  Lunch
  • 1 pm:  Workshops
  • 5 pm: Workshops End
  • Break
  • 6 pm: Trivia night and reception at Mast Landing Brewery
  • 8 pm: Trivia Ends

Tuesday, October 28

Field Trips

Birding with Maine Audubon Esteemed Naturalist

Time: 9:00am – 10:30am

Join Maine Audubon’s Nick Lund on a tour of Mast Landing Sanctuary, looking for late migrants and eastern forest resident birds. Nick Lund is Maine Audubon’s Advocacy and Outreach Manager. He is a birder and bird writer, the other of books including The ABA Field Guide to the Birds of Maine; Dinosaurs to Chickens: How Evolution Works; and The Ultimate Biography of Earth, and with articles appearing in Slate.com, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and other outlets. Register here

Time: 9:00-11:15

Come experience the LabVenture Program at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI). Each year, GMRI hosts nearly 10,000 Maine middle schoolers in its LabVenture program — a hands-on, interactive, authentic investigation of the changing Gulf of Maine ecosystem. At the lab, students use authentic tools of science and methods of inquiry to explore many of the same questions about the Gulf of Maine that research scientists at GMRI are addressing. This program runs for 2.25 hours in small groups of 3-5 people. Register here

Time: 9:30-11:00 (arrive between 9:00-9:15)

Operating as a nonprofit organization since 1997, and an organic coastal farm for over sixty years, Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment is a farm-based education, research, and visitor center set amidst more than 600 acres of conserved open space along Casco Bay in Freeport, Maine.

We’ll climb aboard our open-aired wagon to travel the property and learn about our regenerative farming practices, farmer training, and broad scope of farm based educational programming. Register here

Time: 9:00am – 11:30am

A guided tour of Spartan Sea Farm oyster and kelp farm via boat, followed by a visit to the Freeport Oyster Bar for a beverage of choice (e.g. kelp martini), and seafood tasting (light fare). Spartan Sea Farm: https://www.spartanseafarms.com; Freeport Oyster Bar: https://freeportoysterbar.com

Participants must get down the water to catch the boat (few mins away) and to the Freeport Oyster Bar- right down the road from OLS venue. Register here

Time: 9:30am – 12:00pm

Bath, Maine
https://www.mainemaritimemuseum.org/

Founded in 1962, the Maine Maritime Museum sits on a beautiful 20-acre campus on the banks of the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, the “City of Ships”.

The museum has many exhibits and demonstrations apart from cruises and shipyard tours. Guests can enjoy a self-guided exploration of our exhibits and expansive campus on the banks of the Kennebec River. From historic watercraft restoration to blacksmithing, lighthouses to lobstering, a Victorian home to contemporary interpretations of “maritime,” discover a connection to the past, present, and future of Maine’s waterways. Please come prepared to brave the outdoors! 

Percy & Small Shipyard Walking Tour (45 mins, medium activity). The museum has plenty of on-site parking with front door unloading for cars and buses. 

The museum is located at 243 Washington St, Bath, ME 04530 and has plenty of free parking.  Register here

Workshops

You Can't Be Scientifically or Environmentally Literate Without Being Ocean Literate: Empowering Educators in Ocean Literacy (Diana Payne, CT Sea Grant)

What Is Ocean Literacy? Why do NSTA and NMEA agree teaching and learning about the ocean is critical? Ocean Literacy is an understanding of the Ocean’s influence on you and your influence on the Ocean. By integrating Ocean Literacy into science education, we empower students to address global challenges, including biodiversity loss, environmental changes, and resource sustainability. Join this interactive session and discover how the concept Ocean Literacy began in the United States as a way to incorporate ocean science content into national standards and ended up having a global impact! Learn how to use the Ocean Literacy Scope and Sequence for Grades K-12 and the Alignment of Ocean Literacy to NGSS to infuse Ocean Literacy into your programs and courses! Participants will receive a copy of A Handbook for Increasing Ocean Literacy and the Ocean Literacy Guide.

Interested in engaging youth and community members in observing and assessing the impacts of sea level rise and coastal flooding in your community? Join us for a workshop focused on resources and lessons that support groups of students and community members in collecting data and making observations during extreme high tides and storms to submit to the Coastal Flooding Community Science Project. This data helps improve National Weather Service flood forecasts and advisories in local communities, identifies locations vulnerable to flooding, and helps local emergency managers and decision-makers plan for coastal resilience.   

Experiential learning starts in the classroom! Explore the principles of experiential learning as you solve a real-world problem. Draft, design, build, and compete against fellow colleagues as you build a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Work together as a team to compete against the clock and principles of buoyancy, density, and hydrodynamics. Test your designs using in-water simulations. Dive into the deep end with this engineering challenge!

Students from racially/ethnically minoritized backgrounds remain grossly underrepresented in ocean sciences. National data illustrates that People of Color – Indigenous, Black, Latine, Asian American, and bi/multiracial – comprise nearly 39% of the U.S. population, yet, together, in 2016, represented only 13% of earned doctorate degrees in the ocean sciences (Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018). This continued underrepresentation in ocean science has far-reaching negative implications for generating and sustaining creative solutions that meet the ever-changing demands of the global landscape. To date, efforts to increase the number of Underrepresented and Racially Minoritized (URM) students in ocean science and education have focused on recruitment, with little to no attention on retention. This workshop will focus on several ways you can support retention in your programs.

This workshop will share simple and fun ways to use seaweed to increase ocean literacy and build career aspirations in K-12 classrooms. Hands-on activities include a seaweed touch tank and I.D. of common species, anatomy (seaweed vs. plants), cooking (recipes and tasting), art and games (seaweed pressing, wearable seaweed), and farming techniques. Topics covered include seaweed biology and ecology, how seaweed is a sustainable, highly nutritious food source, its role in providing income and food security, its contributions to solutions for a changing climate, commercial harvesting/aquaculture, and other ways seaweed supports coastal communities and economies. Additional resources and activities for the field and classroom will be shared.  

The Pam DiBona Impacts in Ocean Education Award

On August 10, 2025, the New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative (NEOSEC) lost our visionary founding program manager, Pamela DiBona. She was a cornerstone for our way of being and we will miss her dearly. In her honor, NEOSEC is establishing the Impacts in Ocean Education Award that will be awarded biennially at the Summits. 

We ask for your help in getting this award started by making a donation to support Pam’s memory and the work that she so passionately cared for. Please give what you can. If you would like to support this award in a larger donation, please reach out to Aimee Bonanno – aimee.bonanno@umb.edu.

Want to Sponsor?

Ocean Literate – $5,000+

Give:

  •  4 Full scholarships
  • Support for a summit intern
  • A well planned summit experience
  • Professional development for 150+ educators
  • Support for annual convenings and collaboration to increase equity, access, and belonging in ocean science 

 

Get: 

  • 4 conference registrations
  • 1/2 page advertisement in the program
  • Social media highlight
  • Exhibit table
  • Verbal thank you at Summit
  • Promotion as a Summit sponsor

Ocean Steward – $2,500 – $4,999

Give:

  • 2 Full scholarships
  • A well planned summit experience
  • Professional development for 150+ educators
  • Support for annual convenings and collaboration to increase equity, access, and belonging in ocean science 

 

Get: 

  • 3 conference registrations
  • 1/4 page advertisement in the program
  • Social media highlight
  • Exhibit table
  • Verbal thank you at Summit
  • Promotion as a Summit sponsor

Ocean Sustainer – $1,000 – $2,499

Give:

  • A well planned summit experience
  • Professional development for 150+ educators

 

Get: 

  • 2 conference registrations
  • Exhibit table
  • Verbal thank you at Summit
  • Promotion as a Summit sponsor

Ocean Conservator – $500 – $999

Give:

  • A well planned summit experience
  • Professional development for 150+ educators

 

Get: 

  • 1 conference registration
  • Exhibit table
  • Verbal thank you at Summit
  • Promotion as a Summit sponsor

Ocean Explorer – $200 – $499

Give:

  • A well planned summit experience
  • Professional development for 150+ educators

 

Get: 

  • Promotion as a Summit sponsor

Impact & Scholarship Levels

Smaller or larger amounts can be modified to fit your goals and abilities. Scholarship amounts can also be added to levels above.. For all of these levels you will get data to support your impact goal for your organization.

BIPOC Scholarship – $500

Give: Registration, lodging, and travel support for 1 person of color to attend the Summit.

Teacher Scholarship – $500

Give: Registration, lodging, and travel support for 1 educator to attend the Summit.

Community Participant Scholarship – $500

Give: Registration, lodging, and travel support for 1 community participant to attend the Summit.

Speaker Stipend – $500+

Give: Financial support to attract speakers to the Summit. Includes conference fees. 

Graphic Notetaker – $1,000-$2,499

Give: Financial support to hire a graphic note taker. Graphic note takers increase accessibility and comprehension by expressing and recording information through a different modality.

To register as a sponsor, please contact Aimee Bonanno at Aimee.Bonanno@umb.edu

www.neosec.org

Questions?

Contact info@neosec.org

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