About

The SSU Coast Camp is a month-long ocean science enrichment program run by Savannah State University's Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, sponsored by the NOAA Living Marine Resource Cooperative Science Center. Held each June in Savannah, Georgia, the program offers a half-day format combining classroom instruction with hands-on field work in the marine and coastal ecosystems of the Georgia coast — salt marshes, estuaries, barrier islands, and the Atlantic shoreline. The high school bracket (ages 14–18) is capped at 20 students.

The curriculum is built around NOAA's Ocean Literacy Principles and covers topics including coastal ecology, marine debris, ocean acidification, and Gullah Geechee cultural connections to the local marine environment, with field trips to sites including Cumberland Island National Seashore and the Pin Point Heritage Museum. The program is open enrollment — registration-based rather than selective — and draws on SSU faculty, students, and community partners. SSU's marine facilities include research vessels and direct access to the Wassaw Sound salt marsh estuary.