This upcoming week is Shark Week (July 24-July 31, 2022)! We started early by attending Shark Con at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa on July 17. This was our first homeschool field trip to Shark Con and it was amazing!
There are lots of hands-on activities that are free for the kids, speakers who share information about sharks, and lots of vendors who have awesome stories to share! Read on for more details about this two day event!
Purchasing Tickets
You can purchase your tickets online or at the will call window on site. We chose to purchase online and we received a QR code to scan at arrival. Parking is $10 (price subject to change) and you can pay this when you arrive.
Arrival at Shark Con
When we arrived, we decided to start one corner and work our way around to the end. The end lanes had more of the hands-on touch and see exhibits while the “inside” had a few kids activities and vendors. Towards the back had a pool to dive in, a huge shark slide, and also the stage for the speakers and seating.
Activities For Kids
Our first activity was looking at preserved sharks, and a stingray. You can also touch them! The speakers shared information about the shark and stingray’s anatomy, the types of food they eat, their injuries, and so on.
Our next stop was at a booth called Shark 4 Kids, and the kids tried out the virtual reality headset and “swam with sharks”. Shark 4 Kids encouraged us to head on over to their website for free curriculums that teach about sharks! After we got home, I checked out their website and it is full of information! So, we will be using their curriculum next week for our shark lessons (a time saver for me because I never taught “shark week” before in our homeschool, so this helps a lot!).
The next booth was about saving the manatees and ways we can help them. Some ways include using reusable straws and water bottles instead of the one time use, using reusable shopping bags, and recycling.
Another booth was about marine life rescue and the kids were able to lift a 4ft toy dolphin on a stretcher.
The next stop was at an activity booth that had jaws from sharks. The kids had to identify what kind of tool resembles the jaw. For example, a can opener resembled the jaw of a Tiger Shark. Then they had to identify what types of food the shark ate. This was actually really fun and so informative! My youngest was able to recall the information at a later booth so I was impressed. He is a hands-on learner and just loved it!
Another booth talked about how sharks are tagged to give us loads of information. It also shows us how what information we can obtain through observation such as collecting parasites where the shark swam, and testing the waters for bacteria. One fact we learned is that sharks do not get cancer and researchers are interested in why!
The last few booths we visited, the kids were able to watch live baby bamboo sharks in their egg sacks. We could actually see it’s gills moving! This was pretty amazing. The kids also were able to make their own shark tooth necklaces. And finally, the last activity was to find out what injured the animal and what animal it was through X-Rays.
The kids collected posters, books, stickers, tattoos, stress balls, pens and more through many of the booths. It was a lot of fun for them and the speakers did a great job with educating them and planning these amazing hands-on activities.
If you’ve never been, I would recommend going at least once. Shark Con has a website with a line up of speakers for both days so you are able to check it out and plan your day when you go for one or both days. I learned a lot and it helped me to understand sharks a bit better and plan for our upcoming Shark Week lessons and activities.
If you have been to Shark Con, what was your favorite activity?