School Programs
The Aquarium’s sleepover programs offer a very unique and exciting way to view and explore ocean life. Through our school sleepovers, students participate in hands-on activities, games, crafts, and observe marine animals with our education staff guiding the evening events. The Aquarium offers six school sleepover programs, four for 3rd through 6th grades (Predator, Prey, and Pajamas; Crazy Creatures from Dusk till Dawn; Spotlight on Sharks; and Sensational Sea Life) and three for 6th through 8th grades (The Reef that Never Sleeps; Oceans of Opportunities; and Sensational Sea Life). Educational programming and dinner accompanies all sleepovers during the evening from 5:00 pm – until approximately 10:00 pm. At 10:00 pm, the group prepares for bed. Students are separated into two groups (boys and girls) and either sleep in our Northern Pacific Gallery or Tropical Pacific Gallery. Aquarium staff, teachers, and chaperones will sleep with these groups in the galleries as well. The group wakes up at 6:00 am for an enjoyable breakfast with our seals and sea lions and a brief overview of the evening events. Everyone who participates in the sleepover program receives an overnight T-shirt (“I Slept under the Sea Stars at the Aquarium of the Pacific”).
Long Beach Marine Institute Sleepover
New overnight program aboard the RV Conqueror!
This program includes a self-guided tour of the Aquarium of the Pacific during aquarium hours and your choice of shark dissection, squid dissection, plankton, water chemistry or watershed program. Program wraps up with a breakfast inside the aquarium. Call us today to find out more! ! (562) 431-7156
Program begins at 3:30 pm and ends at 7:00 am* the next morning. Available Monday through Sundays.
*Optional trawl and sediment grab in the Long Beach Harbor after breakfast for additional charge.
$60 per guest
$50 per Aquarium member
Predator, Prey, and Pajamas
Grades 3-6
Discover some extraordinary inhabitants of the deep with their highly developed senses, amazing adaptations, and fascinating ways of tracking down their next meal. This unique program helps you take a bite out of some predator myths as we investigate the creatures of the deep blue sea.
Science Standards: 3rd: 1a; 3a-c. 4th: 2a-c; 3b. 5th: 2a, f. 6th: 5a-d.Spotlight on Sharks!
Grades 3-6
Sink your teeth into a nocturnal adventure as we explore the mystifying world of sharks and learn what makes them such amazing predators. Our shark experts will help dispel some of the myths that have given sharks such a bad reputation and reveal their role in the food web. After a night of investigation students will come away with a greater appreciation for sharks and the adaptations that have made them an apex predator.
Science Standards: 3rd: 3a, b, e. 4th: 2b; 3b. 5th: 2a, c. 6th: 5b-d.Crazy Creatures From Dusk 'til Dawn
Grades 3-6
From flukes to feathers, scales and scutes, and beaks to bones, diversity abounds beneath the sea. Participants will learn about the different types of animals (invertebrates, fish, sharks, reptiles, birds, and mammals) that inhabit the big blue. We will explore animal adaptations from tiny boneless wonders to the top of the food chain while learning about the unique relationships and habitats of these ocean critters.
Science Standards: 3rd: 3a-e. 4th: 2a, b; 3a-c. 5th: 2a. 6th: 5c, d.Oceans of Opportunity
Grades 6-8
So what do you want to be when you grow up? How about a job feeding otters or scuba diving for research? Find out what it takes to enter the field of marine biology, through hands-on activities and behind-the-scenes observations at the Aquarium.
The Reef that Never Sleeps
Grades 6-8
By day, the warm sun illuminates flashes of color, crowded trafficways, and thousands of tenants living in the cramped quarters of the coral reef. But what happens as the sun goes down? Find out who is lurking past bedtime as we explore some of the ocean’s best nightlife. From the colorful colorful coral reef to the abyssal trenches of the deep ocean, your students will discover ingenious ways animals interact in the dark.
Science Standards: 6th: 5a-e; 7b. 7th: 1b, d; 2a; 5a; 7a. 8th: 6a.
