Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1500213
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 42 JUNE + JULY 2023 CELEBRATING THE WORKING WATERFRONT A year-round, indoor science education space is dedicated to teaching kids (and adults) about Gloucester's maritime heritage and its living, working waterfront. BY ALEX ANDRA PECCI L I V E + P L AY PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELISE SINAGRA Children huddle around a low touch tank, plunging their hands into the frigid, salty water to get a chance to touch or hold a lobster or a huge, otherworldly looking moon snail while greenish-brown seaweed ripples in the artificial current. In other tanks, cinder blocks and pipes sit among scuttling crabs, and blue mussels cling to the sides of a thick post, where a starfish is tucked at the bottom. A sign on the wall invites visitors to "look up!" to see the underside of a wooden dory with a fishing net attached to the end. Just feet away, outside in the cold Gloucester Harbor, scenes just like these bloom under the dock beneath the licking waves, and these tanks recreate that hidden ecosystem, a reminder that every inch of Gloucester's waterfront is teeming with life. These tanks are only a small part of Maritime Gloucester's brand-new Maritime Science Education Center, a year-round, indoor science education space dedicated to teaching kids (and adults) about Gloucester's maritime heritage and its living, working waterfront. It opened in January as Gloucester kicked off its 400th anniversary year and is the first of two planned phases that aim to bring year-round maritime education to the Gloucester community and beyond. "This is becoming an educational platform for the community and really helping us to capture these kids and inspire them to pursue STEM," says MichaelDeKoster, Maritime Gloucester's executive director. For nearly two decades, Maritime Gloucester has worked with Gloucester Public Schools to bring STEM education to students in grades three through five by visiting classrooms and inviting students to the center, which is housed in a site on Gloucester Harbor that was once home to a marine railway and ice house, among other things. "We did that through the lens of marine MichaelDeKoster, Maritime Gloucester's executive director.