Ocean Arks International
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K-12 School, and University Programs

Class tourOcean Arks works with K-12 schools, colleges and universities to help people learn about and apply leading edge environmental thinking as part of their curriculum.

  • Helping you integrate Classroom Ecosystems into your curriculum,
  • Showing you how to design and build ecoystems on campus for display or research purposes,
  • Curriculum development,
  • Design consulting on ecological technologies for projects at your school and in your community

Classroom TourWe currently do not have a regular tour schedule of any facilities or workshops. However, we should be offering these services again in the future. A limited number of workshops or tours may be possible by special arrangement by contacting us at info@oceanarks.org. In the meantime, here is a list of running facilities that can be visited:

Vietnam War Memorial, VT. Rest stop right on I-89 Northbound in Sharon Vermont.

Smugglers' Notch Resort, VT. By appointment only: 4323 Vermont Route 108 South Smugglers’ Notch, VT 05464-9537

The Darrow School, NY. By appointment only:
110 Darrow Road, New Lebanon, NY 12125
Tel: (518) 794-6000 Fax: (518) 794-7065
Toll Free: (877) 432-7769

New England BioLabs, MA. By appointment only:
240 County Road
Ipswich, MA 01938-2723
Telephone: 978-927-5054
Fax: 978-921-1350
Toll Free: 800-632-5227

Berea College, KY. By appointment only: Berea, Kentucky 40404 Tel: 859-985-3593

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. 375 Sanctuary Road West - Naples FL 34120 phone: 239-348-9151 / fax: 239-348-9155

Kitchener-Waterloo YMCA, Ontario. 460 Frederick Street, Suite 203 Kitchener, ON   N2H 2P5 Tel: 519-584-7479

Oberlin College Adam Joseph Lewis Center, OH. By appointment only: 122 Elm Street, Oberlin, Ohio.

Tour of Ecological Systems

We currently do not have a regular tour schedule of any facilities or workshops. However, we should be offering these services again in the future.

For some people who live in proximity to one of our projects, a tour offers an excellent introduction to our work and the work of others.

During a typical tour, for example, we talk about ecological design, stewardship, and the potential for reinventing our communities through the integration of beautiful and functioning natural systems into our homes and neighborhoods.

We help folks understand how complex natural systems work, from basic biology lessons to ethno-botany, the chemicals in our environment as endocrine disruptors, Gaia, and explorations in systems thinking and self-organization. Inevitably, we enter the world of new paradigms, where waste is a resource, bacteria and the micro-cosmos seem to rule the world, and where people come to realize that humans can indeed restore nature through simple measures in our everyday lives.

For information on touring EcoMachine facilities, contact us

Workshops at Your School

seed     berea display     seed
Teachers and students at Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire created a living laboratory to augment their high school environmental studies curriculum. Ocean Arks showed students and faculty at Berea College in Kentucky how to build their own ecosystem. Later, the students created this display system outside the administrative offices as a way to promote a dialogue on ecological design at Berea. Students and faculty at Green Mountain College in Vermont learn how to design and build their own Educational Ecosystem. They eventually want to build a larger system for treating cafeteria food waste ecologically.


Toward Ecological Design

Is your school planning new construction? If so, you may find the following interesting: