Mote SEA Shark Pups & Grown Ups
For a child who has only just discovered the ocean, a shark is less a creature of menace than a question with fins: How does it move?
By Edit Sarasota Staff
For a child who has only just discovered the ocean, a shark is less a creature of menace than a question with fins: How does it move? What does it feel? Where does it live? At Mote SEA’s Shark Pups & Grown Ups, those questions become the starting point for an early-morning adventure designed to make science feel as natural as play.
Created for children ages 2 through 5 and their favorite adult, the program offers a hands-on introduction to the living world through movement, sign language, science-tool exploration and role-based activities. The approach is deliberately tactile and welcoming to young learners, who may be more comfortable investigating a shark through a gesture, a motion or a magnifying tool before they are ready to absorb a formal lesson about marine biology.
That spirit of discovery is especially fitting in Sarasota, where the Gulf is not simply scenery but part of daily life. Children grow up alongside estuaries, mangroves and barrier islands, yet meaningful encounters with marine science can begin long before a school field trip. Programs like Shark Pups & Grown Ups give families a shared language for noticing the natural world—and for understanding that curiosity, rather than fear, is one of the best ways to approach it.
The gathering takes place at Mote Science Education Aquarium, the public-facing home of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium’s work to connect research, conservation and education. The venue brings scientific ideas down to a child’s scale, offering families an environment where questions are encouraged and the line between learning and play is pleasingly thin. For grown-ups, the class is also an invitation to participate rather than simply observe: to wiggle, sign, investigate and follow a young learner’s lead.
The result is less a lecture about sharks than a first relationship with science—one built through movement, shared attention and the thrill of finding something out together. On Saturday, November 7, 2026, Shark Pups & Grown Ups will welcome its youngest explorers and their companions at Mote Science Education Aquarium, 225 University Town Center Dr., in Sarasota.