The Education Program of the Grand Bay Reserve is an integrated program of life-long learning designed to educate a variety of audiences on the importance of wisely caring for estuarine and coastal resources. Creating informed coastal stewards requires first instilling a sense of place (a personal attachment) for coastal areas. The Reserve does this through Community Education, K-12 and Collegiate Programs.

These programs pass on information gathered by scientists and other researchers through hands-on learning methods both inside classrooms and out in the field. Whenever possible, we use the many habitats of the reserve as "living laboratories" so that our audiences can experience first-hand all the reserve's unique biological, geological, historical and cultural wonders.

The Reserve's community education program is designed to engage community members with informative, hands-on activities pertaining to estuarine ecology in order to instill within them a "Sense of Place" for coastal habitats.

Participants in these activities learn about the importance of conserving coastal resources and grow to appreciate, value and conserve  estuarine resources.

The goal of the Reserve's K-12 education program is to provide field experiences that engage both the students and the teachers. Most programs are designed to demonstrate the importance of estuaries and their associated biodiversity. Field experiences often involve pontoon or canoe aquatic tours to a maritime forest or an American Indian midden or terrestrial tours to a pine savanna to learn about fire ecology and carnivorous plants.