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Clearwater Marine Aquarium's H2O mobile classroom, wrapped with sea turtle graphics

Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Clearwater, FL

Healthy Habitats & Oceans

Clearwater Marine Aquarium, located in Clearwater, Florida, rescues, rehabilitates, and releases marine life while promoting conservation and environmental education.

To expand their education programs, Upland Exhibits helped design a mobile classroom for third graders, built inside a custom RV. The classroom has six interactive stations focused on sea turtles.

Illustrated sea turtle graphic from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium mobile classroom
Client
Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Completed
2025
Scope
Graphics, Interactive Design & Fabrication, Digital Touchscreen Design & Programming

Turtle Technology

Students are split into groups to work through each of the six stations. When they begin, each group chooses from six turtle figurines they will bring with them on the tour. These turtle figurines represent different sea turtle species and are equipped with NFC tags that can be scanned at the six touchscreen kiosks. These kiosks introduce students to their turtle, provide a fictional GPS location, and information about dangers their turtle may face in that location.

Tray of six sea turtle figurines, one for each group to choose at the start of the tour
Visitors tour the mobile classroom in groups. Each group chooses a turtle figurine they carry with them throughout the experience.
Student scanning a turtle figurine on a kiosk's NFC reader outside the mobile classroom
Each turtle is equipped with an NFC chip they can scan at each of the six touchscreen kiosks to learn about their turtle.
Interactive touchscreen kiosks inside the mobile classroom
Kiosks allow visitors to "track" their turtle, watch videos, learn about dangers their turtle might encounter, and take quizzes! Each kiosk displays different information and tells a continuous story as they tour the mobile classroom.
Interior of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium mobile classroom
Swivel panel interactive inside the mobile classroom
On the estuary wall, we designed and fabricated swivel panels where visitors can learn about wildlife and debris you might find in an estuary.
Wall Ball interactive game inside the mobile classroom
Young sea turtles emerge from the sand and make their way to the ocean, and it can be a dangerous journey. We designed and developed two identical "wall ball" games for visitors to race to the ocean.
Operation-style interactive game inside the mobile classroom
We designed and developed a surgery simulator where visitors can learn what debris their turtle has ingested and then remove them. Visitors can wear lab coats, and carefully remove debris from inside the turtle body.
Model Turtle Excluder Device net hanging above the open-ocean station inside the mobile classroom
The open ocean presents several threats to sea turtles, with commercial fishing being one of them. We built a model Turtle Exclusion Device (TED) to show specific efforts for conservation.

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