Education
CWC has developed education and outreach materials to inform the public about watershed issues. Our main message is to convey the connections between the actions humans take on land and the health of local watersheds. We work with local elementary and middle schools to develop and deliver hands-on watershed related lessons that help teachers meet California State Science Standards. CWC’s approach of assisting teachers in meeting these established standards earns the trust and support of the teachers we partner with. Currently our school-based programs include classroom presentations and field trips with New Brighton Middle School, San Lorenzo Valley Middle & Elementary Schools, Alianza Charter School and Landmark Elementary School.
Learning certainly doesn’t stop when we finish school, which is why CWC also provides out-of-school educational opportunities. Currently, we’re presenting a series of free environmental films and water tours to inform the public . Please check our Watershed Events page for updates as we finalize the details. Our philosophy is to get people out into our coastal watersheds so that they may understand the ecology of aquatic ecosystems.
Get Outdoors (GO!) Program
The “Get Outdoors!” or GO! Program is funded by a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). CWC has earned a competitively-awarded grant through NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training Program, which supports hands-on outdoor watershed and water quality monitoring programs to students in the Monterey Bay region.
Benefits of the GO! Program include the creation of an integrated, self-sustaining program that delivers meaningful outdoor educational experiences designed to teach students about the connectivity between people, watershed health and the ocean. As well, the provision of equipment, materials and curriculum allows teachers and students to engage in watershed activities and water quality monitoring at water sources near their school.
Through hands-on lessons and activities, students gain technical water quality monitoring skills, learn about pressing environmental issues, and become empowered to make a difference in their community. Lessons are designed to provide a progressive and rigorous program that can assist in raising the scientific literacy of students in underserved populations.
Valencia Elementary in Aptos was the first participating school in the GO! Program, beginning in 2006, followed in 2007 by Landmark Elementary in Watsonville. New Brighton Middle School was added in 2008, and Alianza Charter School joined the GO! Program in 2010. Since its inception, the program has provided approximately 1100 1 st – 6 th grade students with meaningful watershed experiences. Equipment and materials provided to the schools include water quality monitoring kits, 3-D watershed models, binoculars for bird studies, microscopes, rubber boots, river tank ecosystems, flora and fauna identification cards, digital cameras, trash grabbers for habitat clean up, and program binders containing equipment instructions and curriculum to support various watershed activities.
After three full program years of participation, the Landmark teachers are using the skills and curriculum they learned from CWC staff in their classrooms. With the help from CWC staff and volunteers, Landmark students learned the different parameters of water quality monitoring during hands-on lessons, field trips to the Watsonville Sloughs and Watsonville Wetlands Watch.
New Brighton Middle School is in its third full program year of the Get Outdoors (GO!) Program. 6th grade students get to learn about water quality in class and also during monthly field trips to nearby Noble Gulch. Each month there is a theme that focuses on a single water quality parameter, such as transparency or electrical conductivity. Students play a fun interactive game having to do with the theme, do water quality monitoring and have a focused activity that allows them to practice using specific water quality monitoring equipment. Students also receive field journals each month to keep track of data and important information.
4th, 5th and 6th graders at Alianza Charter School in Watsonville are new to the Get Outdoors (GO!) program. 6th graders have had lessons about erosion, water chemistry and benthic macro invertebrates. 4th and 5th grade students have learned all about the Watsonville Sloughs through a series of stations set up in class. Students rotated through each of the four stations where they got to check out the 3-D watershed model, learned about aquatic creatures, plant species and the slough food web. Alianza is also lucky enough to have a small creek running through there campus; one of the goals of CWC is to clean up the creek and create an outdoor learning space for all students at the school.
We sincerely thank NOAA for its provision of BWET funding in the State of California, as well as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Monterey for its continued support and participation in the BWET grant funding.
CWC Education Programs are also being funded by the City of Capitola and the City of Santa Cruz
Building of CWC’s Get Outdoors (GO!) Program, the City of Capitola has funded the Capitola Storm Water and Education Program (CAPSWEd). This program complements the ongoing program at New Brighton Middle School. This program has allowed CWC staff and New Brighton Middle School 6th graders to focus on learning about storm water specific issues. Students had a chance to map all the storm drains on their campus and two science classes created storm drain markers that will be installed on the campus. Students designed these markers, and a company called Almetek produced them. These markers are important to be placed on this campus because all the stormwater generated on the New Brighton campus flows to Nobel Gulch, which goes to Soquel Creek and then to the pacific Ocean.
Students will participate in an activity called “Name that Mystery Pollutant” that focuses on four of the pollutants of concern as specified in the city’s NPDED Permit. Students will learn to identify the pollutants as well as how to reduce the usage of them in their daily lives.
Santa Cruz Watershed Education and Outreach Services; Funded by the City of Santa Cruz
Kindergarten through fifth grade students at San Lorenzo Valley Elementary and sixth through eighth graders at San Lorenzo Valley Middle School will be continuing to learn all about the San Lorenzo watershed during the 2011-2012 school year. The City of Santa Cruz has funded the Santa Cruz Watershed Education and Outreach (SCWEO) program to connect these students with their watershed. Lessons focus on the basics of a watershed and pollutants that can affect our drinking water, using CWC’s 3-D watershed model. Students also learn about the San Lorenzo River during an interactive puppet show and learn about water quality monitoring by looking at the benthic macro invertebrates (BMI) that are found in local creeks.
4th and 5th grade students receive lessons about the San Lorenzo watershed using CWC’s 3-D watershed model which open up the possibility to further their knowledge of specific problems pertaining specifically to the San Lorenzo River, particularly sedimentation and pollution from septic systems. Students learn about river ecology and how rocks and gravel provide important habitat for BMIs, which are part of the aquatic food web. These rocks also provide a place for endangered steelhead trout to lay their eggs.
The beautiful weather in the San Lorenzo Valley expand the possibilities for field trips to nearby Fall Creek for all students at San Lorenzo Valley schools. Students have a chance to use some water chemistry equipment to measure such parameters like dissolved oxygen, transparency, electrical conductivity, temperature and pH. In addition to water quality monitoring, bio monitoring is a good excuse to visit the creek and do a survey to determine the water quality by counting the number of different BMI species found.
Funding for CWC’s education activities comes in the form of a grant through NOAA’s B-WET program, which supports CWC’s Get Outdoors (GO!) Program, and from contracts with the City of Capitola and the City of Santa Cruz. The Trees To Sea Explorers Camp was funded by local individuals and a grant from the Monterey Penninsula Foundation. We also rely on support from individuals like you, so if you believe in what CWC is working towards, please donate today.
