DISL’s Discovery Hall Programs (DHP) provides professional learning opportunities for teachers and nonformal educators through virtual and onsite single-day and multi-day workshops.
Workshops include experiences outside in the field, science content, discussions with experts including Sea Lab faculty, and relevant lesson plans and hands-on activities to take back to the classroom or learning environment.
Workshops are developed with the Alabama Course of Study standards, Ocean Literacy Principles, and Climate Literacy Principles in mind, ensuring that they remain relevant to educators’ teaching needs.
As an AMSTI Affiliate, all DHP workshops provide professional development hours for maintaining teacher certification. Select workshops offer graduate credit through the University of West Alabama for educators pursuing advanced degrees.
DHP also offers a variety of educational resources for informal and formal educators. Visit our Educational Resources page to view these materials.
Upcoming Workshops
March 22, 2025
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Educators of grades 6-12 are invited to join a NOAA Ocean Exploration facilitator on Saturday March 22, 2025 at the Mississippi State Coastal Research and Extension Center for a full-day, in-person professional development workshop. Together we will explore hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, two deep-sea ecosystems with dense biological communities fueled by chemosynthesis.
June 15-19, 2025
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Do you teach high school level marine science? Join us at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab to explore ways to strengthen your high school marine science curriculum, network with fellow teachers, and immerse yourself in marine science while in marine environments!
July 20-24, 2025
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Join us to bring ‘wet’ STEM to your students! This hands-on workshop will address various physical and biological characteristics of ocean environments such as sound, currents, and ocean bathymetry by exploring common equipment, tools and sensors.
Prior Workshops
Dive into NASA’s Gravity, Recovery and Climate Experiment-Follow On (GRACE-FO) Satellite mission to bring climate and the water cycle into your classroom. This 90 minute virtual workshop is limited to 25 participants.
This virtual workshop uses inexpensive hands-on lessons to introduce sea level rise basics. The workshop will last 90 minutes (1.5 contact hours) and is limited to 25 participants.
Are you interested in building a ROV but could use a bit of help? This 3 session virtual workshop will lead you through constructing a fully functional ROV. There is also an in-person optional day to fly your newly built ROV in the DISL campus pool.
Join us in person to explore bringing ROVs into your classroom or learning environment and learn about our new
ROV loaner classroom kit.
Empty shells preserved in sand and mud on the seafloor offer a lens into past environments, allowing scientists to “time travel” to coastal environments long before the Industrial Revolution. Join us this year to explore the environmental history of Alabama’s coastal waters.
Alabama’s environments seem to be experiencing stress on a number of fronts, but efforts are being made to improve our collective resilience. Join us to investigate these stresses - hearing from scientists, visiting local areas experiencing change, exploring classroom activities that address weather, climate, biodiversity, and more in coastal areas and discussing solutions and adaptations to change you can share with your learners.
Immerse yourself in ocean STEM in this free multi-day workshop. Experience using ocean technologies in the field, learn from scientists, and explore hands-on classroom activities.
Plankton are found in both marine and freshwater environments making the content and activities of this workshop applicable to aquatic environments everywhere. This virtual workshop includes the who, whats, and whys of plankton. Participants will receive a supply kit for use in their teaching environments.