Community engagement is exactly what Audubon had hoped for when we began planning for the Center in 1993.
That year, the Board of Directors decided that a new, highly visible
focus on education was needed, and that the best way to reach more
people, adults and children, was to build a center in an easily
accessible place that also had a wide variety of habitat - including
fields, forests, wetlands and rocky shore - to present a lively
cross-section of the state's biodiversity.
Ten years after its official opening in July 10, 2000, Audubon's
Environmental Education Center remains a state-of-the-art natural
history museum and aquarium offering many environmental wonders to
explore.
It features interactive exhibits of local habitats, mirroring the
creatures and ecology one might encounter as they explore outside.
Visitors peer inside a 33-foot, life-sized Right Whale and learn about
its unique history as well as the dangers it faces today. Families
discover colorful and thriving sea life in a living tide pool. Birders
with binoculars and field guide in hand witness the glory of spring
migration. Summer campers pull seine nets through the water and discover
life at the shore. Children climb off their bikes and search for
turtles and frogs in the brackish marsh adjacent to the bike path, and
nature enthusiasts of all ages regularly walk the winding trails and
boardwalk to Narragansett Bay.
Moreover, there is a plethora of educational programs to choose from,
such as weekend events, after school programs, summer camps, and adult
lectures. The Center is also a frequent destination for school field
trips, as well as a place for home-schoolers to enhance their education.
There is no question that the Center is a living, breathing testament to
Audubon's philosophy that conservation begins with education.