“Use the side, like this, and press harder,” said Michael Van Hout, demonstrating the technique.

The more pressure the boy applied, the sharper the image. Scales. A fin. A snout. A smile spread across the child’s face as his etching revealed a full-bodied sea horse. “Cool,” he said.

Hundreds of visitors to the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher enjoyed similar cool experiences during the DREAMS Community Arts Day on Saturday. Adults and children watched demonstrations by local teaching artists and created works of art inspired by the sea—fabric jelly fish, etchings, painted clay medallions, clay pottery.

In addition, ocean-inspired art of DREAMS of Wilmington students hung in the halls and on the wall of the Aquarium— giant jellyfish with textile tentacles, mosaic sea turtles, painted dolphin and more. These pieces illustrate the skills and knowledge gained by the young people during a year-long partnership between the Aquarium and the Wilmington-based non-profit.

DREAMS is dedicated to providing youth in need with high-quality, free instruction in the literary, visual, multimedia and performing arts.

“This partnership is another step in expanding the Aquarium’s community and cultural role, and integrating art – outside of our living collection – to help interpret the sea around us,” says Aquarium Director Peggy Sloan. “DREAMS students experienced Aquarium camps and outreach. They experienced the ocean and used these experiences to create beautiful art. Now their interpretation of the sea will help place art in the hearts and minds of Aquarium visitors.” .

DREAMS Community Arts Day and the Aquarium collaboration were privately funded through National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program. Twenty three Program participants invested between $250 and $1,000 through an on-line investment marketplace.

The Aquarium’s Sea2Sound program fosters student awareness of the ecosystems of the Outer Banks, along with a better understanding of how scientists monitor and measure these systems through teamwork, hands-on inquiry and use of scientific equipment.

At the beach, students record plants and animals found, current weather readings, soil analysis, light penetration and water quality analysis. At the Nature Conservancy’s Nags Head Woods Preserve, classes are assigned a dune field, maritime forest and a swamp or sound-side beach and record their findings. Back in the classroom, students are given a follow-up test.

Since its creation in 1986, the N.C. GlaxoSmithKline Foundation, based in Research Triangle Park, has granted more than $61 million to support North Carolina projects and programs that meet the educational needs of today’s society and future generations.

Photo: N.C. GlaxoSmithKline Foundation President Margaret B. Dardess presents a $25,000 grant certificate to Kate Degnan (right), educator at the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

As oviparous (egg-laying) sharks, female chain dogfish (Scyliorhinus retifer) deposit eggs in pairs roughly every two weeks. The semi-opaque egg cases have long, stringy tendrils that become wrapped around underwater structures to anchor the eggs in place. The gestation period is similar to humans, lasting nine months.

Chain dogfish are found in much of the western North Atlantic, but are limited to water temperatures from 48 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. These small sharks live in waters from 300 to 1,500 feet, and are on display in the Aquarium’s Saltwater Gallery Labrador Current exhibit.

The N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island is at 374 Airport Road, just north of Manteo. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

• Toad abode – Personalize a terra cotta pot and place it in your garden or yard to shelter insect-eating amphibians such as toads and frogs from their predators.
• Bird feeder – Turn a pine cone into a bird-seed dispenser for feathered friends in your neighborhood flyway.

Construction takes place on the Aquarium’s covered deck near the exit, weather permitting and as supplies last. The activities are free with admission, and the Aquarium provides materials and hands-on assistance.

The Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and its sister facilities at Ft. Fisher and on Roanoke Island work toward a common goal – to inspire appreciation and conservation of North Carolina’s aquatic environments. The Aquariums originally opened in 1976.

“The chance to share a unique and up-close view of our watery world with three million visitors is a great sign of the success of the Aquarium’s mission,” said Aquarium Director Allen Monroe. “This includes thousands of young students that visit each spring and leave inspired to learn more about our fragile aquatic environment.” April, May and June are prime months for visiting school groups, admitted without charge as part of the Aquarium’s commitment to environmental education.

Starting the second week of June, choose from a number of outdoor adventures, including fishing, kayaking, beach explorations and more. These programs and the indoor tours require advance registration and fees in addition to admission.

Turtle Tuesdays and Fin-Filled Fridays are back this summer. Turtles of all kinds will be featured every Tuesday beginning June 11 and culminating with the Sea Turtle Celebration Aug. 13 that includes a “birthday” salute to the Aquarium’s rare white sea turtle, Nimbus. Sharks take the spotlight in Fin-Filled Fridays from June 14 – Aug. 9. Shark Week July 28 to Aug. 3 delivers even more toothy times, with shark-themed programs every day.

Wise up about owls and other birds!

Summer is for the birds at the Aquarium. Winging It – Birds in Flight opens for its fourth season with a brand new show on Friday, May 24, the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.

This ticketed program stars native raptors and water birds soaring overhead in Big Rock Theater in response to commands. The show highlights the unique features of various owls, hawks, pelicans, vultures and other species. The audience enjoys extraordinary close encounters with these engaging creatures.

The 2013 program uses the fun premise of a television science show featuring Professors Byrd and Knurd to illuminate environmental issues that trouble these species, and solutions that can be incorporated into everyday life. Some new cast members join the flight crew this year. All the birds in the show have injuries or conditions that prevent their release into the wild. Like all the Aquarium’s activities, the birds also deliver family-friendly entertainment.

Winging It – Birds in Flight runs daily at 1 p.m. in Big Rock Theater. Tickets are $4 in addition to admission for ages 3 and up. There is no charge for “infants-in-arms” ages 2 and under. Read more about the birds and the program.

Visitors are invited to draw their favorite animal, plant, activity or other image relating to the ocean on a giant mural. The community artwork will be displayed at the Aquarium and posted on the Aquarium website and social media outlets. Visitors also can pledge to support ocean conservation through everyday choices such as recycling or replacing plastic shopping bags with the reusable variety.  The small fry have their own pledge process in Discovery Classroom, and can make a take-home hero character to photograph in ocean-saving activities for posting on the Aquarium sites.

These and other fun, hands-on activities, games and display throughout the Aquarium spotlight animal migrations, diversity of ocean life and ecosystems, deep-sea explorations, how the oceans make Earth habitable, the ocean’s influence on weather and the Earth’s features, and how humans and oceans are connected. The activities represent the seven principles of the Ocean Literacy Campaign. The wide-ranging collaboration of scientists and educators seeks to raise public awareness of the importance of the world’s seas and how to keep them healthy.

The annual worldwide World Oceans Day celebration is coordinated by The Ocean Project, a global network of about 1,700 partner zoos, aquariums, museums and other conservation organizations working to inspire action to protect the seas. World Oceans Day activities are available throughout the day and are free with admission or membership.

Here’s how it works: Buy a bucket of sand. Run it through the sluice –  and cool off a little at the same time. Then look for  sharks’ teeth and other fossils the water reveals. You keep the pail and whatever you find.

The sluice is similar to those used for gemstone mining in the Appalachian Mountains. Water flows through a trough, where participants work the sand through a screen sifter. The buckets of sand are packed by a local supplier and contain an assortment of fossilized shark teeth, fish vertebrae and other fossils. Some buckets may include fossilized snails, clams, oysters, urchins, sea stars, and corals.

But shark teeth are the most popular finds, and each bucket features more than a dozen. The teeth may be from extinct species, or those from tiger, mako, thresher, blue, sandbar and white sharks. Some lucky participants might even find a tooth from the giant, prehistoric Megalodon shark! Like the other fossils they find, the shark teeth recovered from Shark Tooth Creek may range from thousands to millions of years old!

The three-pound buckets are available for $10. Proceeds are collected by the NC Aquarium Society and used to support exhibits and educational programs at all three North Carolina Aquariums. Watch for the opening of Shark Tooth Creek soon.

• Watch how sharks really eat in feeding demonstrations.
• Get the inside story on shark anatomy in a Creature Feature.
• Enjoy a close encounter with a bamboo shark.
• Watch divers swim with the sharks in the Living Shipwreck.
• Sharpen your wits for a shark jeopardy quiz game.

For great photos, pose by the life-size inflatable replica of a great white shark or the jaws of a giant megalodon, and  look for the shark mascot, Friendly Finley. In the classroom, size yourself up compared to sharks and enjoy shark-themed crafts and hands-on activities. Stop by the Sportfishing Gallery to see a film on sharks. Between activities, find the four species of sharks in the Aquarium’s exhibits. The fierce-looking sand tiger sharks, the fast-moving sandbar sharks and the curiously named nurse sharks all inhabit the Living Shipwreck. In the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a bonnethead shark is easy to spot because of its namesake head shape. Click for more on these species and a video on sharks.

Fin-Filled Fridays and Shark Week activities are free with admission or membership.

Meet turtles in an animal encounter, a live animal program and on discovery carts throughout the Aquarium. Find out where turtles live and enjoy other hands-on activities and crafts in Discovery Classroom.

Look for these types of turtles in exhibits and programs – spiny softshell, box, red-eared sliders, yellowbelly sliders, Eastern river cooters and diamondback terrapins. Also see some 2012 sea turtle hatchlings in the Sea Turtle Nursery in the Tidal Waters gallery. Watch the water in the Living Shipwreck for a green sea turtle. See Nimbus, the rare white loggerhead sea turtle, in its new home near the Sea Turtle Rescue exhibit, also new. The exhibit uses model turtles and technology to help you see what it is like to diagnose and treat an injured or ill sea turtle. Pose by the bronze loggerhead and sea turtle sculptures at the Aquarium entrance. See photos of all these turtles.

Saltwater dwellers take center stage for the season finale of Turtle Tuesdays on Aug. 13 with the Sea Turtle Celebration. Activities on this day highlight tiny sea turtles that annually hatch by the hundreds on area beaches. Beachgoers can find out how to prevent obstacles that block the path of the infant turtles as they scramble from their sandy nests to the surf. The Aug. 13 celebration includes a salute to Nimbus, who turns two in August. Turtle Tuesday activities are free with admission or membership.