How to Become a Part of MARE

Interested in joining the MARE family? There are many levels of participation and affiliation in the MARE experience. Learn more about how to "dive in." Feel free to contact us for additional information on becoming part of the MARE program.

MARE Teachers
Teachers make MARE happen. MARE teachers deliver direct instruction of the MARE curriculum and work as a team at their grade level to coordinate their habitat specific Ocean Immersion experience. Team teaching and peer coaching become standards of practice for teachers engaged in the MARE model.

Most teachers enter MARE through whole-faculty inservice, a Habitat Workshop, or through the intensive MARE Summer Leadership Institute. Regardless of the venue, teachers receive in-depth professional development in the MARE curriculum and hands-on, inquiry-based science pedagogy.

MARE Leaders
MARE leaders become site-coordinators for implementation of the MARE curriculum and the Ocean Immersion program at their schools. Leaders are teachers, parents, or adminstrators who have participated in the MARE Summer Leadership Institute. This training provides Leaders with the full scope and sequence of the MARE curriculum, opportunities to learn and share ideas with other MARE leaders, and tools to assist them in planning, scheduling, and supporting their Ocean Immersion program.

Being a MARE leader means assuming a role as catalyst for the school-wide implementation of the MARE curriculum and Ocean Immersion experience. MARE Leaders typically:

• Lead professional development for teachers at their school site
• Make presentations to parents about the Ocean Immersion program and the positive impact of family involvement in school activities
• Organize an Ocean Festival or other school-wide events
• Facilitate grade level planning for teaching marine science activities
• Work closely with the school community to implement the Ocean Immersion program
• Use the Web-tools for school planning, district planning, receiving support from LHS staff, checking in about progress and accessing resources for planning and implementing the program

MARE Leaders may assume roles beyond their own school and seek to coordinate district-wide or larger regional dissemination of the MARE program. These MARE Leaders (called MARE Associates) are affiliated with a MARE Center.

MARE Schools
A school that has adopted the MARE curriculum, sent participants to the MARE Summer Leadership Institute, and implemented an Ocean Immersion Program is considered a MARE School. There are currently over 600 MARE schools in the USA and Mexico. Many MARE schools continue to involve MARE staff in on-site professional development or in-class modeling during their Ocean Immersion program.

MARE Schools can be independently administered, coordinated through their districts, or served through a MARE Center. Regardless of their organization, all MARE Schools enjoy connection to MARE and other schools through ongoing professional development and the growing MARE network's e-mail lists.

MARE Centers/MARE Associates
The MARE program is administered throughout the USA and Mexico by six regional MARE Centers:

• The Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley,CA
• Rutgers Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, NJ
• University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Texas
• Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Oregon
• Eureka School District, CA
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CA

Each Center has received training and support from MARE at the Lawrence Hall of Science. These Centers remain closely affiliated with the LHS MARE program, and provide professional development to teachers in their respective communities.

A MARE Center is ideally located at a college/university, marine biological laboratory, or an aquarium/museum or other informal science center. Each MARE center is staffed by MARE Associates (MARE Leaders who have assumed roles beyond their individual schools or institutions) who implement their own MARE professional development workshops and Summer Leadership Institutes.

Contact us for information on your nearest MARE Center or for information on becoming a MARE Center.

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