Ocean Commotion

Exhibitor Information

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Help celebrate 25 years of Ocean Commotion on Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center. This will be a day to share knowledge about our coast and environment with Louisiana K-8 students. The event runs from 7 am –3 pm (including set-up and tear-down). Students will come in two waves: middle school in the morning, elementary in the afternoon. Parking, lunch, and a t-shirt are included.

Register your exhibit: OC 2023 Exhibitor Registration is closed

We hope to see you this fall!

For exhibitor related questions about Ocean Commotion, contact Vanessa van Heerden at [email protected] .

2023 Exhibits and Exhibitors

River and Delta Table
LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences – Mariotti Lab
Using a large delta table, students will see how rivers and deltas work, how water and sediment move, and how land is formed and destroyed. You might get wet and dirty, if you choose to.

Trawl Crawl
4-H Youth Wetlands
Crawl through a trawling net to learn about shrimp life stages, bycatch, turtle exclusion devices and more!

Sensory Safari
Safari Club International (SCI)
Explore all sorts of marine specimens and articles including a mounted penguin and life-size polar bear rug.

Full Circle to Recovery
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries – Wildlife
Come learn about how we work to protect and manage Louisiana’s wildlife, including alligators, Louisiana black bears, and whooping cranes.

Discovery Hall Programs Touch Table
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Explore and learn about a variety of preserved marine animals using sight and touch! Get up close with some of our marine neighbors.

Shipping Around the World
United States Coast Guard
Learn about what kinds of boats carry cargo around the world and how the Coast Guard helps!

Come out and explore Louisiana State Parks!
Louisiana State Parks
Interact with some furs, skulls, and other things: including a baby alligator or gopher tortoise!

Fight the Bite
Mosquito Control
Learn about the ways we control mosquitos and how you can help.

Web of Life
Baton Rouge Zoo
Explore some biofacts and interact with live animals to learn about how all living things are connected and how you can protect the creatures in ecosystems.

Water Filtration Challenge – Using STEM to preserve our water sources!
Capital Area STEM Network Center
Participate in the Water Filtration Challenge where students will experiment with filtering different water types to learn about pollution. Prizes are available to the challenge winners.

Something’s Fishy!
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries – Fisheries
Identify some of Louisiana’s fish species using real specimens and learn how biologists age fish.

Wetlands Jeopardy and Habitat Game
Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act
Play a game to learn about wetlands ecosystems and the importance of protecting and restoring them. Coloring pages, activity books, and stickers are available to give away to students!”

Floodplain Simulation Model and Storm Surge Model
Jefferson Parish Floodplain Management & Hazard Mitigation/Ecosystem & Coastal Management
Come learn about the critical role that floodplains play the life of a watershed and how wetlands protect us from storm surge through interactive models.

Energy Enigma and Recycle Challenge
Louisiana State Energy Office
Quiz Time! Spin the wheel and answer an energy related question. Then, take your best shot and do your part to recycle. Everyone gets a prize!

Go with the flow
Louisiana Sea Grant
Learn how commercial fishing gear works!

Shrimp Catch Sorting
Louisiana Sea Grant
Students will have the opportunity to sort through shrimp catch like the commercial shrimpers.

Catching Crabs
Louisiana Sea Grant
Students will experience what it is like to be caught like a crab in a trap!

Fun with Seawater
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences – Wetland Biochemistry Analytical Services
Students will use potatoes to learn about the role of density and salinity in different coastal and marine waters!

Save our waterways!
Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
Come learn about water pollution that is carried by rainfall runoff and how we can protect our watersheds from pollution through an EnviroScape, an interactive watershed model. Students can also see a dead petting zoo and aquatic insects!

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands: A large storage of carbon and so much more
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences – White Lab
Students will learn about the importance of wetlands in storing carbon and protecting homes from flooding.

An Immersive Journey to Louisiana’s Eroding Coastal Wetlands via Virtual Reality
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences – Xue Lab
Using VR headsets, students will get an immersed expedition to Barataria Bay and Wax Lake Delta. They will learn why wetlands are important habitats.

Walnut Bayou
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Learn about how water can transport and deposit sediment in a dynamic water environment through an interactive model called Walnut Bayou. Students will also investigate how different environmental stressors influence these environments.

Oyster Exploration
Louisiana Sea Grant Oyster Research Lab
Come explore all things oysters! Students will learn about the oyster life cycle, see a mini oyster farm in a tank, and explore the floor plan of the hatchery to learn about oyster farming in the state.

Mobile Mechatronics Lab with Maritime Simulator and Microplastics Water Treatment Station
Northshore Technical Community College
The Mechatronics Mobile Lab provides hands-on technical and career exploration stations for K-12 and college students. Our exhibit will feature a maritime simulator and microplastics water treatment station.

Water and Human Interactions
STEM NOLA
Interact with a stormwater floodplain simulation, which is used to demonstrate the critical role that floodplains play in the life of a watershed and the impact of unplanned development and human activity.

Lake Maurepas – Shrimply Amazing
Conservation Capital Soil and Water Conservation District
Learn about Amazing Lake Maurepas and current conservation efforts, including the life cycle of shrimp, California Bulrush plants, the process of how the California bulrush, and an exhibit of what the lake bottom looks and feels like.

Caminada Headlands Virtual Tour in the Starlab
Region 5 STEM Center
https://m.facebook.com/R5STEM/
Enter a portable planetarium to experience the Caminada Headlands! Students will learn about the role that Louisiana’s barrier islands play in coastal preservation and protection.

Technology to Save our Oceans
Aquatic Germplasm and Genetic Resources Center
Students will interact with a 3D printer and other technology to produce devices to safeguard genetics of aquatic animals, and for conservation of important species.

The Flood Fighter Challenge
LaHouse Home and Landscape Resource Center
Your house needs to be protected from the oncoming flood. What kind of foundation will you put your house on? Will your house survive the flood? Students will learn how to answer these questions through hands-on play.

Rainfall Runoff
Louisiana Dept. of Ag and Forestry/Capital Soil and Water Conservation District
Students will interact with displays to see the advantage of keeping soil covered versus bare.

Whoo’s in your backyard?
Westdale Heights Academic Magnet
Students will learn about the adaptations of different Louisiana wildlife, biodiversity, and the job of a wildlife rehabilitator. Special guest: live animals!

Migration Mishaps
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, National Park Service
Students will actively portray migrating birds down the Mississippi River in a fun, educational game.

One Fish, Two Fish, Redfish… Plastic Fish?
St. Scholastica Academy
Students will practice catching (fake) fish in a sea of plastic pollution and learn about the effects of plastic pollution on marine life and ways to prevent it and to clean it up.

Planting the Future
St. Scholastica Academy
Students will create a mini-composting bin and a “flowering necklace” made from a seed. Once the seed sprouts, the students can plant it in their mini compost bin and watch their plant grow!

Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuges
Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, USFWS
Everything is connected in nature – a full circle. Learn more about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, while participating in hands-on activities highlighting life cycles, our fragile food chain and native wildlife to Louisiana.

Swamp in the Heart of the City
BREC’s Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center
Come explore life in an urban swamp. Visit our table for touchable artifacts from the Swamp (furs, shells, skulls, etc) as well as live animal encounters (snakes, turtles, baby alligators).

Saltwater Intrusion and Density
BayouSTEM
Participate in an experiment to learn about saltwater intrusion on coastal landscapes by showing density difference associated with varying salt concentrations of water samples.

Underwater Volcanoes
Baton Rouge STEM
Investigate how underwater volcanoes impact marine life underwater!

What is your wingspan?
Louisiana Sea Grant
How do you measure up? Compare sizes of birds and their wingspans and measure your wingspan and find out which birds are similar to your size while learning unique facts about each species.

The World in a Drop of Water
UNO Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences
Students can examine water samples from pond and estuary water to see microscopic and macroscopic organisms! They will use both binocular microscopes and digital microscopes to explore the life in a drop of water.

Get to Know the Weather!
NOAA National Weather Service
Learn about weather instruments, hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding with local meteorologists and hydrologists!

MLODS – Multiple Lines of Defense Table
Pontchartrain Conservancy
Students will build their own multiple lines of defense strategy for protecting a house from a hurricane and test to see how well they did in this hands-on activity.

Where does it live?
Coast and Environment Graduate Organization
Learn about the many animals that inhabit the oceans and how they survive and thrive. Come take your picture as a creature of the ocean!

Rocking Adventures with LASM
Louisiana Arts and Sciences Museum
Using geology-based, STEAM-focused hands-on activities and demonstrations, students will explore how the geologic past is connected to present day life and to a sustainable future.

Water Purifying Demonstration
Engineering Diversity Ambassadors
Explore water purifying abilities of different soil mixtures through this interactive demonstration.

BREAK Youth Preparedness Initiative
LSU Agriculture Center Our booth will engage visitors in activities that are a part of our youth preparedness curriculum in partnership with LaHouse.

Insights into the Collections at the LSU Museum of Natural Science
LSU Museum of Natural Science
Come see specimens of marine fishes from all over the world – from the deep sea to the shore! Students will learn about the scientific value of museum specimens.

Coral Bleaching – the Vanishing Colors of the Sea
Louisiana Sea Grant
Students will learn about coral bleaching through a demonstration using themochromaic pigment and changing water temperatures.

LSU Coastal Roots Program
LSU Coastal Roots
Students will help plant beach dune grass and tree seeds to assist in restoring areas in Louisiana’s coastal plain.

Protecting Our Waterways: Marine Safety and Environmental Protection
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 4-4
Students will learn about the pollution we create, how long it takes to breakdown, and water safety through an interactive game.

How does wind affect waves and coastal erosion?
LSU Department of Oceanography – Hiatt Lab
Students will use a wind-driven wave flume to simulate erosion and nature-based engineering solutions for reducing erosion.

Touch Boxes
LSU EnvironMentors
Explore and identify native and nonnative plant and animal species in Louisiana through this interactive activity.

Amazing Marine Mammals!
LSU EnvironMentors
Learn how different types of whales eat and what they eat!

Plankton Drop
LSU EnvironMentors
Learn about the vertical migrations of plankton and design your own species.

Plastic Scholastics
Baton Rouge Magnet High School
Students will sift beach sand for microplastics, view finds under a dissecting microscope. Exhibitors will provide a demonstration about toxic chemical adhesion to microplastics and the build up of those toxins in the bodies of marine organism.

Sensors for Coastal Ocean Observations
LSU Department of Oceanography – Xu Lab
Students will participate in a hands-on experience with optical and acoustic sensors to learn about the observations of waves, currents, water quality, how quickly sediment settles to the ocean floor.

Foil Boat Activity
Society of Peer Mentors
In this activity, students will work together to come up with a design for an aluminum foil boat. The boat will be tested by placing various objects inside to see how well it floats.”\