POULSBO — Hopes to return Poulsbo’s Marine Science Center to its past glory floated across Liberty Bay Thursday. Literally.

As part of the Poulsbo Marine Science Foundation’s efforts to reopen the center, a group of about 40 students from Suquamish Elementary School got a taste of the types of educational experiences that could be in store for them if the center opens its doors again.

“I really want it to come back,” said 11-year-old Taylor Kinslow as she watched plankton being pulled from the water to be counted under a microscope.

Studying science on a boat was more fun than learning about it in the classroom, Kinslow said.

“I remember coming here when I was in kindergarten, second, third and fourth grades,” Kinslow said, adding that she and her family enjoyed visiting the center before it closed.

Ten-year-old Thor Moak agreed with Kinslow’s wish that the center resurface from the depths of bankruptcy.

“It’s pretty fun, and I would like to do it again sometime,” Moak said.

While the plankton experiment was his favorite part of Thursday’s trip, Moak said the thing he remembers most about the center is the Giant Pacific Octopus that was part of the center’s aquarium exhibits.

When the MSC closed in March 2005, it was a huge loss to everyone, said fifth-grade teacher Andrea Neault.

“There are things we can’t do in the classroom,” Neault said, as she watched her husband Dave, who works for the Science Education Alliance, demonstrate different experiments during the tour.

Before the center closed, Neault said she was able to incorporate many of her science lessons into two field trips, which increased her students’ knowledge and understanding of their classroom instruction.

With science test scores throughout the state of Washington in dire need of improvement, programs like those offered by the SEA are proving to be important educational tools, she said.

“They use the technology scientists use and see real-world connections to what’s going on,” she said.

With the possibility of the center opening its doors, the opportunity to enhance this aspect of student learning is knocking again, she said.

“That’s where it starts is with the students,” Neault said. “They get excited about what they did out here, and it builds from there.”

As the students unloaded from the boat and heavy rains poured down, Bight of Poulsbo founder Bill Austin, who has led the effort to reopen the center, couldn’t keep a sunny smile off his face.

“This is more than I could have asked for,” Austin said. “It was everything I imagined it would be.”