The Deep is easily the most beautiful and unusual building in Hull, standing like a sleek white glacier at the confluence of the river Hull and the Humber estuary. Defining exactly what it is required a new word to be created: there has never been anything quite like it before. It’s called the world’s first and only submarium, a fusion of aquaria and interactive exhibitions that tells the story of the world’s oceans and the life that thrives within them through time, latitude and depth.

Ever since it opened last March, the pound;45m Millennium Commission Lottery project has broken all predicted visitor figures. By the end of August, half a million visitors, including 10,000 schoolchildren, had come to learn and be visually delighted.

Education, both formal and informal, is at the core of The Deep. For schools, there is a carefully developed cross-curricular programme of materials and activities, including a learning centre. For casual visitors and families who want an unusual, educational and fun day out, there is an enormous amount to do and see independently. The Deep is also a research facility, equipped and managed by the University of Hull, the first in the UK to sponsor a PhD on sharks.

Don’t expect loads of fish tanks surrounded by gimmicky buttons to push. It’s a lot more considered and pedagogic than that, although not at the expense of the aesthetic delights of tropical coral lagoons; it has seven varieties of shark and some of the most colourful sea creatures to be found in one place.

It is Europe’s deepest aquarium - containing 2.5 million litres of water and 87 tonnes of salt. The range of habitats and life forms represented is vast: from real and replica fossils, displayed luminously on a fossil wall, to a North Sea tank featuring indigenous fish. There are dramatic, weird-looking natural curiosities such as the lurid red warty frog fish and long-horned cow fish, plus audio visual and 3D exhibits depicting the wastes of Antarctica, prehistoric marine dinosaurs and life on the sea bed.

The building is designed to follow the chronology and structure of the ocean. Visitors start at the top, watching a video representation of the story of the Big Bang, which is when the Earth’s oceans were formed. They move on to myths and legends of the sea. As they go deeper and deeper, down to the sea floor, they move from past to present to future, culminating on the sea floor with a mock-up of a research station under the sea beaming information to land via satellite, circa 2049.

At each level there are fish or, as they’re called at The Deep, animals, since there are a range of creatures among them, placed in different tanks according to the depth of water and habitat they thrive in. The main, endless ocean tank recreates the conditions of the Pacific Ocean, evoking a genuinely astonishing sense of depth and vastness, with fish swimming at different levels. It is probably the closest experience you can get to deep sea exploration without getting wet.

Situated throughout, there are hi-tech interactive modules, touch screens and tactile exhibits to engage the mind and stimulate the senses. The themes covered in the interactives include conservation, an important priority at The Deep. Visitors learn about threats to the planet’s oceans and sea life and measures undertaken to reverse them. And the team of 45 staff is actively involved in conservation projects throughout the world. As well as being able to see live coral in one of the tanks, for instance, the aquarists are growing live coral to supply to other aquaria.

The conservation message is carried through in its education work. Under lifelong learning manager Dr Angela Hutton’s direction, all educational resources are put online - but not printed, for conservation purposes. It also means the materials are easily adaptable by teachers to their own needs. Teachers bringing school parties to the building have a choice of going the “awe and wonder” route without making use of the learning centre or of following the national curriculum-linked Discovery File programmes on the website. All the educational materials are based on Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory, using a range of stimuli to ensure accessibility to a range of learning styles. They have been developed with local schools.

The central aim, says Angela Hutton, is to “widen the choice of activities on offer to schools. So you can come into the learning centre with or without preparation (pre-visit materials are available on the web) and do a range of things here, including art, science, geography, literacy and numeracy.”

On a sunny day in July, all 48 children from Saltfleetby primary in Louth, Lincolnshire, tour the submarium before spending a stimulating hour in the learning centre solving a murder mystery, a specially designed problem-solving activity for key stage 2 that involves the theory of food chains, including terminology and construction. They are given their brief by Inspector Sharkey, in the form of one of the Learning Centre staff, who explains that a parrot fish has been killed. The pupils have to find out who did it, provide the evidence for their conclusion, and determine how to prevent it happening again. Key suspects, among others, are a sand tiger shark and microscopic plankton. Around the room are different activity stations that they are allowed to spend five minutes at before moving onto the next, where they carried out their investigations on interactive computer programmes, a sample of brine shrimps under a microscope and worksheets. In the classroom next door, key stage 1 children are carrying out their own investigations, finding mystery mermaid purses hidden in the sand and putting their hands inside to try to identify the mystery replica sea creatures within. Feedback from teachers has been positive. One primary school (the majority of visits are from primaries) had, according to Angela Hutton, “done a whole week of artwork, poems and puzzles inspired by their visit”.

But the beauty of The Deep is that coach parties of senior citizens, some in wheelchairs, express the same wonderment and excitement as the primary pupils when a white-tipped reef shark or humphead wrasse sweeps past their heads. It’s a place for shared experiences, no matter your age.

TAKE A TRIP

The Deep, Hull; 01482 381000; www.thedeep.co.uk; info@thedeep.co.uk. Open: 10am to 6pm daily. Price: pound;4 per student. One free adult for every 6 pupils (primary) every 10 (secondary).