Immersion course

There’s one big difference between watching “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in a dark movie theater and visiting the “Explorations!” exhibit at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. At “Explorations!,” you’ll get your hands wet.

That’s a good thing, says Harry Helling, the institute’s vice president of research and education.

“Our whole center is about immersive education,” Helling says. “We allow our visitors to feel, taste and smell the topic that we’re exploring, and we try to spark their imaginations and provide concrete experiences that help kids in the classroom.”

“Explorations!,” which debuts on Saturday during the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival and will be open to weekend visitors through Jan. 30, is designed to give the public a better understanding of the technology that has aided scientists in the study of shipwrecks and deep-sea artifacts. One highlight is a virtual tour of the underwater city of Port Royal, which sank off the coast of Jamaica during a 1692 earthquake and is featured in the new Disney movie. Participants can simulate the delicate art of excavation by dipping their hands into water-filled tanks and carefully brushing sand away from small artifacts. While they work, films of real explorations at Port Royal are projected on surrounding walls.

The Port Royal exhibit is an example, Helling says, of how the institute, a 34,000-square-foot facility that educates school groups during the week and is open to the public on weekends, tailors programs to California’s school science standards.

“Middle school students are learning about plate tectonics, and [teachers] are trying to get students to be more interested in understanding how the Earth is put together and, when it shifts, what happens,” Helling says. “Well, here’s a pretty cool story about a pirate town that essentially was devastated by the sliding of two plates.”

Another new attraction lets visitors maneuver a small underwater robot in a large tank, much as they would a remote control car. This offers a glimpse of how scientists study such vessels as the Titanic, which, resting 12,000 feet below the surface, is far too deep for scuba divers.

To make the robot experience authentic, operators view the vehicle’s progress on a monitor. That’s tougher than watching through the tank’s windows, but it’s truer to the way researchers navigate in the deep sea.

In the same spirit of education, robots are built by students, not bought. “We could have gone out and spent $20,000 on a bright, yellow, fancy, ready-built ROV [remote operated vehicle],” says Eric Solomon, the project director for the institute’s Sea Floor Science program. “But we think it’s valuable for the public to see what the students are doing.”

Special exhibits like “Explorations!” are replaced every four months -- in February, the institute will offer “Slopes, Slides and Tsunamis” -- but there’s no shortage of intrigue in the rest of the teaching facility. Visitors can see how the institute grows jellyfish, some of which are sent for display at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. They can operate a magnetometer that beeps when they find metal objects and can inspect the Cryobot, a towering device resembling a giant Pez candy dispenser that bores through ice. Cryobots are built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge and probably will be used in the future, Solomon says, to search for sea life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to have a vast saltwater ocean covered by a thick layer of ice.

“We’re not a museum or an aquarium or a traditional science center,” Solomon says. “We provide an experience that gives students a sense of what it means to be a scientist. One thing we’ve found that teachers are excited about is that kids can realize that they too can be scientists, and that scientists are not all white, middle-aged males with glasses and lab coats and messy hair.”

Another way to accomplish this sense of accessibility, Solomon says, is through group problem-solving. For instance, a family may be given a tube of water containing an artifact and asked to retrieve it using such basic household items as paper clips and straws.

“They’ll all be sitting around a table, and the 6-year-old may have something to add and the grandmother may have something to add,” Solomon says. “When a family solves these kinds of problems together, it’s a really powerful way to learn.”

Another big part of the institute’s mission, says Helling, is to foster the long-term preservation of the ocean. This can involve something as simple as making people aware that picking up a snail or a sea star in a tide pool can put them in unfriendly territory.

“It may be like moving them from a rainforest to a desert,” Helling says. “Our real job is to inspire a sense of respect and wonder for our environment. When people understand how things work, we think they’re more likely to be better stewards.”

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Ocean adventures in Dana Point

“Explorations!”

Where: Ocean Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point

When: Opens Saturday. Hours are Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., through Jan. 30.

Cost: $5; $3, children (ages 4 to 12); free for Ocean Institute members. Includes admission to institute.

Info: (949) 496-2274

Toshiba Tall Ships Festival

What: A tour of 19th and 20th century historic vessels with mock battles, live music and art shows.

When: Friday, 5-7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Cost: $6; $4, children; members: $4; $ 2, children

Info: (949) 496-2274 or

www.tallshipsfestival.com