The South Carolina Aquarium’s Newest Chapter

“You have given our children a priceless gift. Children will enter, but future scientists, doctors and biologists will leave…and they will never be the same,” reads a plaque outside the Boeing Learning Lab now open at the Charleston Maritime Center, which was built through the generous support of Boeing and other donors like them. To Brian Thill, the South Carolina Aquarium’s long-standing Director of Education, this isn’t just a vision. It’s a directive he’s excited to fulfill.

It’s a short but impactful walk to the brand-new Boeing Learning Lab from the South Carolina Aquarium on the shore of Charleston Harbor. With saltwater lapping at the sea wall and a breeze rattling Palmetto fronds, the walk takes visitors past the International African American Museum’s reflection pool and docks reaching out into the harbor. This learning lab has been years in the making and it helps bring to life the vision of former Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr.

“Do you hear the science?” asks Thill as he strolls beside the water’s edge on a sunny February afternoon. His enthusiasm is palpable. He points to the water, the way its tide ebbs and flows. He gestures toward the sky. The clouds. “It’s everywhere,” he adds. “Everything you see and everything you hear. It’s science.”

Thill and his colleagues believe in the therapeutic values of water. They call it Blue Mind, a term coined by renowned marine biologist and author, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols. When someone is having a rough day, they might be told to “go get some Blue Mind.” It’s a cue to get outside, take a moment. Take a walk and go to the water.

“There’s so much evidence that water promotes focus and creativity,” he says.

Thill loves the thousand steps between the Aquarium and the Learning Lab, anticipating to the days when students from across the state will visit the Aquarium and head to the Learning Lab. The science Thill and his staff can share on the brief journey is endless. There are weather patterns. Shore birds. Even the water itself is full of science, Thill notes. Students can test temperature, salinity levels and pH. They can look at a few drops beneath a microscope.

“Kids don’t know that whenever they get in the water, they’re swimming in plankton,” said Thill. “It’s inspiring to see all the science in our world.”

Environmental Education

The link between science and the real world wasn’t always obvious to Thill. Growing up in Winona, Minnesota, near the banks of the Mississippi River, Thill spent most of his time outside. “My uncle was a dairy farmer,” he says. “He had all this land where we could wander and hunt.” A Boy Scout, he read Backpacker Magazine in his high school library and dreamed of outdoor adventures.

It wasn’t until he was a teenager helping a friend with a service project on the Mississippi River with a biologist from the United States Fish & Wildlife that Thill had his ‘a-ha’ moment. “Wait,” he remembers thinking, excitement lighting up his face decades later. “This is a job?”

Thill attended the University of Alaska at Anchorage on a cross-country scholarship for two years, an experience he calls life-changing.

“It was like living on another planet out there,” he says. But when he found a school program that combined all his passions, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and completed his degree in Natural Resource Management with an emphasis in Environmental Education.

“I love the idea of revealing the meanings of science and how our world works,” he says. “I want science to feel tangible, especially for kids.”

His passion led to a role as a wildlife educator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, writing curriculum around sustainability in nature, before he decided to check out the Carolinas, where he landed a job at an outdoor education center at Charlotte’s Lake Wylie Residential and Environmental Learning Center. There, he met his wife. The two moved to Charleston in 2007 and the rest, as they say, is history. Thill landed at the South Carolina Aquarium and hasn’t looked back. Today he uses his talents to build programs for students that take them behind the scenes at the Aquarium, where they can research the environment, interact with live animals and so much more. In almost 20 years, he hasn’t lost is his enthusiasm for sharing his love of science and the outdoors. Spend five minutes with Thill and you’ll see it too.

The Learning Lab

The idea for the Learning Lab sparked in 2017 when Thill and some colleagues were on a “walk and talk” along the water, getting some Blue Mind. They neared the Charleston Maritime Center, a former seafood processing warehouse with four large bay doors on either side (one set facing the water, where seafood and ice were loaded in direct from the boats in the marina, and the other set of doors facing the street, where the seafood was loaded onto trucks and sent out into the world), and someone imagined a metaphor: bring students into the water-side, and send them out into the streets, as future scientists and environmentalists.

Today, that former warehouse is a state-of-the-art classroom space. It boasts four indoor learning areas and an outdoor teaching space open to the coastal breeze. Floor-to-ceiling windows showcase harbor views, while reinforced concrete panels protect against storms. Aquarium-inspired branding and imagery flow throughout, bringing the Lowcountry’s saltmarshes to life indoors. Thill’s vision for the Learning Lab is lofty: from student programs during the school year, to summer camps, even to after-hours classes for adults dedicated to lifetime learning, the possibilities feel endless.

“I’m beyond grateful for the folks who believed in our vision,” he says. “The Aquarium is celebrating 25 years this year, and with the opening of the Learning Lab, we can do even more of what the mayor asked of us all those years ago. I’m proud of the fact that our community believes in our value and allows us to invest in these groups of kids. Who knows what the next 25 years will bring?”

Maybe donors and investors won’t be here to see the excitement when kids see a pod of dolphins out on the water. Maybe they won’t see the selfies the kids take with the marina or the IAAM. Maybe they won’t smell the pluff mud. “But the kids will be here—and that’s what really matters,” Thill says.

“Science is everywhere,” he adds again with a smile. “Can you see it? Can you hear it?”

BIO

Brian Thill

Director of Education, South Carolina Aquarium

Hometown

Winona, MN

Education

BS Natural Resource Management, Environmental Education and Interpretation from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. 2 years studying Biology/ Secondary Education at the University of Alaska - Anchorage. NCAA student athlete.

Family

Michele (Wife), Sophia and Audrey (Daughters)

Hobbies

Being outside moving...Running, trails, watching his daughters compete in athletics.