Prince William Sound Science Center

Our mission is to advance community resilience and the understanding and sustainable use of ecosystems.

The Prince William Sound Science Center envisions communities that maintain socioeconomic resilience among healthy ecosystems. We are unbiased in our approach, and we approach all projects with the attitude that they can lead to positive impacts, sustainable use of resources, and a resilient region.

Getting young Alaskans outside to learn and explore is one great thing your Pick.Click.Give. donation enables us to do. With your support, kids of all ages can participate in our outdoor summer programs.

Our youngest attendees enjoy monthly “Discover Cordova” outings. Be it searching for critters in tide pools, tramping up a hillside to spy wildflowers, or getting on their hands and knees on a “bug safari,” we guide tots to explore local ecosystems and all they have to offer.

Grade-school kids get to explore the ocean, temperate rainforest, glaciers, and wetlands during week-long day camps on the Copper River Delta. At the secondary level, future leaders of our region actively learn about the history, ecology, and challenges facing the watershed while rafting the Copper River and its tributaries.

Our high school Delta Restoration Team restores native plant communities as well as fish and bird habitat—gaining ecosystem knowledge, practical skills, a sense of ownership of their public lands, and improved understanding of the connections between themselves, economically important natural systems, and resilient communities.

Teaching young Alaskans about salmon is another great thing your Pick.Click.Give. donation enables us to do. Kids from ages one to twelve learn about this locally relevant, globally important fish.

Our youngest explorers learn about the salmon life cycle by pretending to be a salmon. Along the banks of a salmon stream, kids run an obstacle course. They imagine they are a salmon, like the ones they see swimming alongside them, understanding what it takes to survive in nature.

In our Discovery Room programs, students at Mt. Eccles Elementary learn about salmon ecology and life history. With the Copper River Watershed Project, we support a salmon tank at the school. Students rear Coho salmon eggs until they are fry, and release them into the ocean. Along the way, they learn to monitor water conditions, feeding habits, and physical and behavioral changes.

Many of the students who benefit from these programs are children of families invested in the fishing industry of Prince William Sound and the Copper River Delta. Your donation ensures these kids will grow up to be informed citizens about a resource we all depend upon.