Ocean Farmers is an awardee of the 2021 eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy mini-grants program. USC Sea Grant partnered with the Aquarium of the Pacific and Holdfast Aquaculture to develop lessons for preschoolers to early elementary students to learn about Aquaculture through Play with Aquarium of the Pacific and Holdfast Aquaculture. This program provides diverse learning opportunities for young children exploring marine aquaculture. Focusing on seaweed aquaculture, the project explores how families learn about aquaculture through play-based activities for young children from sorting the tools and products of ocean farming and land farming and discussing how different farmers grow food for people. The activities allowed young learners to imagine they were ocean farmers and learn about what ocean farming is and looks like. Youth also have a chance to dress an ocean farmer paper cut out and play at being an ocean farmer. In developing the activities, aquarium staff also evaluated best practices for establishing collaborative programs.
