Our Educational Mission To You!

Our primary mission is to educate visitors to our website and aquarium about the Hudson River as a physical, biological, and cultural entity. By way of hands-on, participatory encounters with the River's denizens and habitats, we seek to fully engage the minds of children and adults. We view the Hudson River Aquarium as the dynamic teaching tool that will make this possible.

The Aquarium provides an experimental arena in which visitors can learn to grapple with the complexities of interrelated ecosystems. The Hudson River begins as a freshwater lake, becomes a river, changes to a brackish estuary, and finally joins with the Atlantic Ocean. With these changes in habitat and geography come changes in the fish, birds, invertebrates, and plants.

Perhaps most closely reflecting this dynamic nature of the river, in their own life histories, are those species of fish that hatch upstream, swim downstream and into the ocean, where they mature, and then return to the Hudson to spawn. Sturgeon, shad, salmon, and striped bass all echo in their ecologies the River, the Ocean, and the people with whom they directly and indirectly interact. The nature and magnitude of human use and impact also changes along the River's physical course, and along the River's course through human history. The facility will also provide opportunities for students and researchers to work closely with the aquatic life of the aquarium in order to expand their knowledge of the ecosystems of the Hudson River.

Combine these features of the River with the fact that it is part of a regional and global ecosystem and, the rich, complex, and vital nature of this spectacular watershed becomes clear. That each visitor may experience the River and understand -- viscerally and rationally -- it's role in our lives is our ultimate goal.

These Are The Proposed Educational Areas Of Our Focus

K-12 School Program / Outreach Programs
Teacher Programs / Volunteer Service & Interpretive Programs, Publications, and Educational Media / Public Programs - Library Internship Programs / Member Education Programs

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL LINKS AND MORE!