About

TIDAL QUEST (Teens Investigating Diversity of Aquatic Life) is a one-week summer field science program for students entering grades 9–12 at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on Cape Cod in East Falmouth, Massachusetts. Students spend the week working alongside Reserve scientists conducting environmental monitoring projects using the same technologies researchers employ to study climate change, sea level rise, wildlife, and coastal plant communities. The program runs Monday–Friday as a day program ($400) with one session typically offered in early August.

Waquoit Bay is a NOAA-designated National Estuarine Research Reserve — one of 30 such reserves in the country, managed specifically for long-term coastal research and education. The field work is authentic: students engage with real monitoring equipment and ongoing Reserve projects rather than simulated curriculum exercises. Registration is open enrollment rather than competitive. For a high school student on or visiting Cape Cod with genuine interest in marine or coastal ecology, TIDAL QUEST offers a week of hands-on field science in a setting few summer programs can replicate.