FIELD TRIPS AND TOURS
The mission of Belle Isle Aquarium’s Education and Visitor Engagement Team is to inspire a lifetime of curiosity, passion, and stewardship for aquatic ecosystems in people of all ages. We strive to foster aquatic ecosystem resiliency and vitality for future generations through rich educational experiences for people of all ages.
We invite you to explore our Field Trip & Tour offerings, free resources for at-home learning or to share with your classrooms, and the partnerships we foster to extend the reach of our impact on students and teachers.
No tours of any kind will be scheduled for the
Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory through Fall 2024.
The facility will be closed for major renovations. Learn more here.
Thank you for your interest in field trips and tours at the Belle Isle Aquarium! Now booking for the 2022-23 Academic Year
NOTE: All tours require $50 deposit. Balance is due 2 weeks prior to booked date. Despoit is forefeited if booking is cancelled within 2 weeks of booked date. The Belle Isle Aquarium is not an air conditioned facility. Contact education@belleisleconservancy.org for more info.
* For Student Field Trips: A chaperone-to-student ratio of 1:8 is required. Required chaperones are free, and additional chaperones pay the group admission rate.
RESOURCES
Take a virtual field trip at the Belle Isle Aquarium!
Join our Education Team as they guide you through a field trip at the Belle Isle Aquarium. You will discover the food chains that lie in our tanks and the role of decomposers in the Belle Isle ecosystem. Make sure you download the worksheet so you can follow along!
Part 1 Part 2
PARTNERSHIPS
Belle Isle Aquarium (BIA) and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory (ASWC) are proud participants of DPSCD’s Cultural Passport Program. The Cultural Passport Program gives students the opportunity to experience nature, history, and fine arts education that increases each students' communication, visual thinking, observational, problem-solving, and analytical skills. ASWC hosts every 2nd-grade class and BIA hosts every 5th grade class in DPSCD, serving almost 7,000 students over the academic year. Participation in the Cultural Passport experience provides access to students who may not otherwise visit these venues.
In 2021, the Belle Isle Aquarium (BIA) started a partnership with UPrep High School and their “Zoology & Aquarium Studies Pathway”. Students come to the BIA and explore aquarium and aquatic studies and take a deep dive into various aquatic science careers.
BIC’s Education Team has partnered with CESE since 2019 to bring Project-Based and Place-Based Learning (PBL2) to life throughout Michigan. Through summer professional learning institutes on Belle Isle and year-long fellowships, teachers develop and implement a PBL2 unit with their students and share those unit plans with their PBL2 cohort.