Watsonville Wetlands Watch
Wetland Stewards
The Wetland Stewards Program is a hands-on, experiential wetland science after-school program with a mentoring component. In the fall Pajaro Valley High School interns attend a five-week comprehensive training program that prepares them to help lead visiting middle-school groups through outdoor inquiry-based activities. Interns develop leadership skills and serve as positive role models to younger students as they explore the wonders of the wetlands right outside the WERC. College students also mentor the high school interns.
This program uses our Wetland Stewards Middle School Outdoor Curriculum guide which is compatible with CA standards and is appropriate for the demographics of Watsonville youth. These activities include bird watching, water-quality testing, plant scavenger hunts, soil and compost discoveries, aquatic invertebrate observations, nature water coloring, and journaling.
Through eight-week sessions the high school mentors help middle school students become familiar with the Watsonville wetlands and participate in wetlands biodiversity monitoring. The middle-school students collect population data on aquatic invertebrates in the sloughs and develop a project that helps them understand how reseach on aquatic invertebrate populations can be used to assess wetland health. High school mentors and adult docents guide the process and keep students focused and engaged. High school mentors also receive additional training and enrichment opportunities like field trips and career talks every Tuesday.
2010 has been a great year to be a mentor for the Wetland Stewards After-School Program. Our high school mentors (Andrea, Fernando, Jasmin, Sandra, Rudy and Miguel) have been teaching an environmental after-school program at Mintie White Elementary School and Lakeview Middle School. They are exploring neighboring watersheds and other eco-systems, and they took a field trip to Año Nuevo to watch and study Northern elephant seals.*
Our spring theme has been “Wetland Stewards learn habitats.” During these sessions the mentors assist with a variety of teaching tasks ranging from bird feeder creation to restoration projects. Throughout the spring they have worked continuously, crafting animal presentations using animal skulls, live animals, or exhibit animals from the WERC. The mentors have been giving these presentations to the younger students who participate in the after-school program.
Foundation Grants
In fall 2009, Watsonville Wetlands Watch received a second grant from the S.H. Cowell Foundation to help us integrate citizen science into our Wetland Stewards After School Program. We have been very successful in getting our after school middle and high school students interested and engaged in the wetlands over the last three years and are now ready to challenge students further by mentoring them to take on the role of scientist.
In Spring of 2009, WWW was awarded a new grant from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County in the amount of 20K. The grant will be used to enhance and broaden the Wetland Stewards Program. We are excited to receive support from the Community Foundation and this recognition of the importance of environmental education.
Goals and Objectives:
- Infuse and refine the Wetland Stewards After School program by involving students in real-life field science through wetland biodiversity monitoring and data collection
- Further student engagement in wetland biodiversity monitoring through mentor and docent-facilitated projects
- Create a medium for students and community members to share wetland biodiversity monitoring data with the scientific community so that the whole community may take part in planning for future land conservation and management decisions
Wetland Stewards Program Outline:
- Discover!! Students are introduced to the wonders of the Watsonville Wetlands through field trips to the wetlands and Fitz Wetlands Educational Resource Center and through hands-on inquiry-based activities from our Wetlands Stewards Curriculum Guide.
- Monitor!! Students participate in Project Tierra, WWW’s Wetland Biodiversity Monitoring Project. They get to know the aquatic invertebrates of the Watsonville sloughs and learn how they fit into nature’s delicate web of life through field monitoring and a lab study. They will record their data into our database.
- Research!! Students search for information regarding a particular aquatic invertebrate that they have found in the wetlands and then work together to figure out what aquatic invertebrates tell us about wetland health and what we as wetland stewards can do to keep our wetlands clean.
- Create!! Students use the information they gather about their aquatic invertebrate to design a project that tells us about wetland water quality and what we can do to keep the wetlands clean.
- Take Action!! Students present their projects to an audience and display them as an exhibit at their school and the WERC to educate other students about the importance of keeping our wetlands clean.
Wetland Stewards Events & Stewards-Produced Video
| In June, 2008, seven Wetland Stewards gave
presentations and celebrated
their graduations. For more, click image: |
In May, the Wetland Stewards spent two days at Big Sur, camping and exploring. For more, click image: |
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Find out more about our Wetland Stewards Program
- Spring 2007 issue of our newsletter, The Watch: Introducing the Wetland Stewards Program
- Fall 2007 issue of our newsletter, The Watch: Lucky Kids: Update on Wetland Stewards
