Maritime Museum Expands Program

The Ventura County Maritime Museum at Channel Islands has expanded its maritime education program for Oxnard students.

The program has been targeted at fourth-graders, but will now include students in grades three through sixth. The museum integrates maritime education and art appreciation with daily curriculum on California and American history.

The Victoria Avenue museum has been in the Channel Islands Marina since its inception in 1990.

“We feel we have a tremendous community resource here and we are always happy to have as many guests who are interested visit our museum, particularly schoolchildren,” said Tom Thompson, chairman of the museum’s docent committee.

The program will be further expanded in coming months to include education in American maritime history for middle school students and maritime art for high school students. Thompson said children gain a sense of local and state history from the museum tour.

“We adapt our education program to what the students are studying in school, such as American history and our American maritime history,” Thompson said. “The goal is to have a class of children visit every day of the week. We give them a comprehensive tour that lasts about an hour and 20 minutes and we answer the students’ questions as we go along.”

Betsy Jackson, an Oxnard resident and docent since 1991, said 1,200 fourth-grade students have visited the museum this year.