Thirty teachers and five naturalist volunteers received training on Earth and ocean sciences by the

On Feb. 3, 2017 we held a teacher and volunteer naturalists professional development workshop focused on the content and instruction of our MERITO Academy and EECCOA curricula. MERITO Foundation staff, partners and expert guest speakers trained thirty teachers and five volunteer naturalists. Topics included teaching students how to calculate their personal Carbon Footprint, sandy beach and rocky intertidal monitoring, plant phenology and ocean currents. In collaboration with Ventura Water, all workshop participants learned and practiced how to conduct a water audit of their school campus (Ventura Water will be sponsoring the cash prizes for students of Ventura Unified School District participating in the EECCOA Challenge project). In addition, participants experienced water quality testing using high quality acquired monitoring equipment to collect more precise data. Field activities were instructed by Laura Francis (Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Education Coordinator and programs sponsor), and by MERITO Foundation staff. Azucena Yzquierdo (MERITO Foundation) presented the EECCOA Challenge new webpage she created to engage EECCOA students and provide a platform where students may dialogue. Volunteer Naturalists of the CINC also participated in the workshop in preparation for their help during our Spring 2017 field studies’ season. A special thank you our partners, sponsors and volunteers, you are very valuable to us!