Science education research shows that to understand scientific concepts deeply, learners must engage in sense making about them. Thus, instruction needs to shift from a goal of “learning about” to one of “figuring out” science concepts. This project was designed to embody this by providing science experiences wherein students figure out concepts that connect to waterbodies where they live. Due to its success, it is now being broadened into an experience to engage adults in marine environmental education. We built on an existing one-day, marine field-trip program for middle-schoolers by designing, testing, revising, and evaluating a coastal ecosystem unit where students engage in interactive science experiences situated in their communities through a Design-Based Research approach. The resulting curriculum, A Watershed Experience (AWE), incorporates strong informal and formal science learning experiences. Classroom teachers were supported to employ “ambitious science teaching,” shifting from a more traditional concept presentation by teachers to the vision of science learning where instructors are facilitators of student sense-making. To accomplish this shift, we also developed a professional development institute wherein teachers first experience the AWE curriculum as learners, then unpack the pedagogy that underpins it. With our support, they implemented it in their classrooms and engaged their students in informal science experiences at our coastal marine lab. The program evaluation and the reaction of its teachers to their own learning experiences at the coast was so positive, that we used it as the foundation for a new adult program for the public. We pilot tested the adult coastal eco-experience and the demand for this type of place-based learning has so surprised us that we are expanding access to it. We will share findings and lessons learned from the original project funded by NASEM (20+ teachers & 600 students) and the new adult program.