Waquoit Bay Reserve offers education programs for a range of audiences including students, teachers, families, and community members at large. The goal of these programs is to improve environmental literacy in local communities to enable environmentally sustainable decision making. The Reserve’s education and training programs utilize the protected natural habitats within the Reserve and transfer knowledge of coastal ecosystem processes developed by research results from here and elsewhere to various audiences. Resource management issues are incorporated into the classes and presentations. Topics of interest include estuarine ecology, coastal geology, and coastal impacts of climate change as well as information on good stewardship including energy efficiency and renewable energy, ecological landscaping, and wastewater solutions.

Community Education: The goal of the Community Education Program is to foster behavioral change that leads to resource conservation and advances the mission of the Reserve. Community Education focuses on audiences whose personal choices directly impact the integrity of our estuaries and their associated watersheds. Activities include events, like the Watershed Block Party, that are intended to raise awareness of environmental issues and values.

Teacher Training: Teacher training programs are designed to increase learners’ knowledge of coastal ecology and the impacts of human actions on coastal areas, and to promote ecologically sustainable behaviors. Participants learn to access and utilize environmental data while preparing math and science lessons that are exciting for students, meet prescribed education standards, and teach communication and analytical skills using real world scenarios. The programs highlight topics such as renewable energy, climate change, coastal processes, eutrophication, and estuarine ecology.

School Programs: The primary intent of the school programs is to increase the students' understanding of estuarine systems, factors that influence them, and the students’ roles as coastal stewards. Programs are presented in the classroom, at the Reserve and off site at field locations. The hands-on, inquiry-based programs highlight topics such as climate change, coastal processes, watersheds, eutrophication, and estuarine ecology for grades 4 through college.