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¡Vamos a la Playa!

Ocean & Climate Education, Monitoring and Mapping for grades 4th-8th

Sponsored by a Whale Tail Grant, with additional support from the Port of Hueneme, and the REI Cooperative Action Fund, the MERITO Foundation launched a marine environmental education and citizen science project! This initiative involved 605 4th-8th grade students in the exploration, monitoring, and mapping of beaches in Port Hueneme and Oxnard.

What were the Goals of this Project?

Two students in a tidepool with thumbs up
Four hands holding herbit crabs and shells over a tidepool
Student holding a purple sea urchin and a data sheet in a tidepool.
Students looking at the camera and holding a sancrab in their hand.
  1. Build Teachers' Capacity: Provide training, tools, and resources to further the capacity of ten teachers of Title 1 schools in the Cities of Port of Hueneme and Oxnard to integrate climate, ocean, and environmental literacy, environmental monitoring, and stewardship activities in their instructional plans and methods.

  2. Increase Students' Stewardship: Increase their students' stewardship for the coast and ocean environments, particularly regarding sea level rise, urban runoff, and plastic pollution (according to grade level), by immersing them in outdoor community & citizen science and service-learning activities at their local wetlands, beaches, and estuaries.

  3. Build Leadership: Provide opportunities that build environmental leadership and STEM career pathways for the participating students through job shadowing experiences and by facilitating a two-night, three-day outdoor leadership training for “Ocean Ambassadors”, as selected by the participating educators.

Sponsors

Whale Tail License Plate Protect our Ocean and Oceans Fund logo
Port of Hueneme Logo with triangle shapes
REO Co Op Logo with graphic of tree and mountain
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