Stronger Together

Tampa Bay is our home, and we love our community. Learn about some of our current partnerships below, and please get in touch if you’d like to collaborate on something great.

“The Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center has been an amazing partner to our homeschool families and has enriched the science education experience for our students. The students are using microscopes, doing dissections, making models, and finding their own specimens. We are so grateful to live where we can benefit from such an awesome resource.”
— Stefanie Dozier, Gulfside Art & Science Academy

The Discovery Center serves the St. Petersburg community through a variety of partnerships supported by grant funds and donors. We seek to make marine science accessible to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds and with diverse learning abilities.

Some of our key partner organizations that receive free or subsidized programs are:

  • Pinellas County Title I Schools

  • Hillborough County Title I Schools

  • R’Club

  • New Life Village

  • PARC Center for Disabilities

  • Lighthouse of Pinellas

  • Nina Harris Exceptional Student Education Center

  • Police Athletic League of St. Petersburg

  • New Hope Missionary Baptist Church

  • Ronald McDonald House Charities

  • Mindfulness Foundation

  • IamMore Foundation

  • City of St. Petersburg Housing Authority

  • PACE Center for Girls 

  • Chi Chi Rodriguez Foundation 

The Discovery Center hosts interns and mentees from:

  • Eckerd College

  • University of South Florida St. Pete

  • University of South Florida Tampa

  • University of Tampa

  • St. Petersburg College

  • Career Source Pinellas

  • SAIL Futures

  • USF Innovation Scholars Mentorship Program

  • Sea Stars Science Mentorship Program

Additional local and Florida-based organizations we partner with on projects and programs:

  • Tampa Bay Estuary Program

  • Tampa Bay Waterkeepers

  • The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art

  • Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg

  • Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

  • Seaside Seabird Sanctuary

  • Tampa Bay Rays and Rowdies Sustainability Committee

  • Breach the Surface

  • Caulin Donaldson aka “Trash Caulin”, eco influencer

  • Florida Museum of Natural History

  • University of Florida

  • New College

  • Great Explorations

  • MacDill Air Force Base

  • Blue Green Connections

  • Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots (Tampa Chapter)

  • And many more!

  • Girl Scouts of West Central Florida

  • Center for Autism and Related Disorders

  • St. Petersburg Museum of History

  • The St. Petersburg Science Festival

  • Great American Teach In

  • Keep Pinellas Beautiful

  • National Wildlife Federation Gulf Program

  • NOAA Southeast Region

  • IGFA

  • OLLI

  • ASPEC

  • Minorities in Shark Science

  • FWC

  • FWRI

  • MOTE Marine Lab

  • Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida

“Our children in the Transition Program participated in a group activity at the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center. All of our students are either blind or visually impaired. Our day began on an eco tour, and students explored various components of the estuary nearby. They explored sounds, touched various sea creatures, and the staff went above and beyond to provide tactile representations of things that were not able to be held! Following the boat tour students explored the interactive exhibits; observing the turtles being fed, the touch tank, learning about pollution in our waters, fun with sand, and more! Our experience ended with an invertebrate investigation in the classroom. We are so thankful for the thought and preparation that went into making this trip meaningful.”
— Lighthouse of Pinellas