Blue Technology Education Workshop

Dive into innovation at the first Blue Technology Education Workshop, hosted by NOAA Ocean Exploration at the 2026 NMEA Annual Conference in Cambridge, MD! This full-day professional development opportunity is designed for early-career educators eager to bring the excitement of ocean engineering and exploration technology into their classrooms. Registration is required and limited to 30 educators. The workshop fee is $50 per participant. Registration will open with conference registration in April 2026.

Date: Thursday, July 16, 2025 (“Field Trip Day” of NMEA 2026)
Time: ~ 8:30am - 5:00pm (exact hours will be confirmed closer to the workshop)
Location: Hyatt Regency Resort | Cambridge, MD (NMEA 2026 Conference Venue)

Participants will:

• Engage directly with blue technology education organizations including Robonation (SeaPerch), Blue Robotics, Educational Passages, Open CTD, MATE ROV, and NOAA’s Adopt-a-Drifter program!

• Explore student-friendly resources & programs

• Network with peers & veteran blue technology educators

• Develop action plans to implement in your classroom

Join us to gain the tools, confidence, and inspiration to empower your students as the next generation of ocean explorers and innovators!

TARGET AUDIENCE: 

Workshop sessions are designed to best support “tech curious” early-career educators that are familiar with blue technology, but have not yet successfully implemented any technology in their educational setting. 

Participants will receive information and participate in hands-on demonstrations from several (5-6) leaders in blue technology education offering a variety of educational materials, blue technology kits, technology training for educators, and/or student robotics competitions. Additionally, participants will hear from veteran educators that have successfully implemented blue technology in their classrooms, network with both peers and blue tech leaders to develop individualized action plans to implement blue tech in their teaching in the following year, and learn about grant opportunities that could support their implementation plans.

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY

NOAA Ocean Exploration, in cooperation with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and NMEA, is offering $1,200 scholarships for early-career classroom educators—one from each NMEA chapter—to attend the 2026 NMEA Annual Conference and the Blue Technology Education Workshop. These scholarships cover conference and workshop registration and help offset travel costs. Eligible applicants must be formal educators within their first five years of teaching and NMEA chapter members in good standing at the time of application.

Scholarship recipients will receive a code to use to register for the 2026 National Conference. The remaining balance of the scholarship is to help offset travel expenses to the conference/workshop and will be paid as a reimbursement AFTER attending the conference/workshop.

Workshop Agenda

• 8:30 - 9:00: Welcome and Intros (hosted by NOAA Ocean Exploration)

• 9:00 - 12:00: Blue Technology Education 

  • Blue Tech Organization Presentations

    • Who are you, what programs/products do you offer for students and/or educators

  • Hands-on Demonstrations (pool/dock/computers)

    • Participants broken into smaller groups that rotate through stations hosted by Blue Tech Partners where they can try out products/activities and ask questions in a smaller group setting

• 12:00 - 12:45: Lunch  

• 12:45 - 1:30: Tech Demo - TBC

  • Possibly: Soldering, coding basics, or waterproofing systems

• 1:30 - 4:00: Networking and Implementation Planning

  • Testimonials from veteran blue tech educators

  • Funding opportunities share-a-thon

  • Peer networking

  • Integration Plan Development