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U.S. EPA ANNOUNCES EDUCATION AWARDS TO SOUTHERN CA GROUPS

Release Date: 8/4/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

     (San Francisco)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) today announced the award of environmental education grants totaling $56,214 to seven organizations in Southern California.

     "Education is the key for people to understand the world around them and make meaningful choices in their lives and communities," said Felicia Marcus, U.S. EPA's regional administrator. "These grants will help young people to a greater understanding of how we are all linked and responsible for both our local and global environments."  

     Including the Southern California grants, EPA awarded grants totaling $200,000 to 25 organizations in the western states. Recipients of the grants include school districts, colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, and city, county, tribal, regional and state government agencies.

     The grants, awarded under EPA's National Environmental Education Act (EEA), will provide funding to support projects that will address significant environmental issues. The organizations will contribute matching funds. For more information on EPA's environmental education programs, access EPA's web site at: https://www.epa.gov/enviroed.

The recipients are:

Chaffey Joint Union High School District, Ontario -$4,000
ED-SAC: Environmental Disturbance in San Antonio Creek This project will provide 100-120 high school sophomores a way to measure scientifically the effects of human intrusion on comparative habitats, one close and one remote to population.  Students will visit both sites once a month to take samples of the water, collect and catalog the types of trash and debris found, and observe the condition of plants and wildlife.  From the collected data students can hypothesize about the comparative health of the habitats.  They will report their findings to the community through articles in the local newspaper and in presentations to the school board and city council.

Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Bakersfield -$9,500 Kern River Connections This project will expand the number of schools participating in  the Adopt-a-Watershed curriculum from seven to 20 schools, and provide GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) training for 40 additional teachers.  Project partners include the Kern River Water Agency, U.S. Forest Service, California Fish and Game, and Kern River Preserve.  Using the GLOBE protocols, students will learn to make decisions and take actions to address and remediate environmental issues which emerge from their investigations.

Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, Rolling Hills Estates -$5,000 Habitat-Based Science Curriculum for Elementary Schools This project will provide a inquiry-driven curriculum based on local habitats and training for 90 intermediate grade teachers in the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District.  In preparing for the program the Land Conservancy staff will select from existing environmental education resources and adapt them to the natural open space areas withing walking distance of the teachers' schools.  Educator/naturalists will train teachers and parent volunteers in grade and site specific plans to implement the curriculum.

Solana Vista School, Solana Beach School District, Solana Beach -$5,000 Composting Solana Vista The project will provide for two workshops for teachers at Solana Vista Elementary School and one for parents on the need for and techniques of composting.  The sessions will be taught by a master gardener from the University of California Extension.  At school the lessons will prepare the sixteen teacher faculty to involve students in performing the tasks for a composting program including school lunch leftovers.  The parents' workshop offered in English and Spanish will impart training to encourage home compost and garden projects.

San Diego State University, San Diego -$5,000 Student and Teacher Training in Water Quality Monitoring This project will establish partnerships with several departments of the university, the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, San Diego County Water Authority, and several San Diego middle and high schools.  University students will serve as mentors and trainers for middle and high school students in creating a monitoring program to perform water quality testing on a regular basis in semi-arid San Diego area and international watersheds.  The accompanying curriculum will cover water treatment, water reclamation, nonpoint source runoff pollution, and watershed management.  Additionally, San Diego County  Water Authority will offer training to over 300 teachers to use water monitoring kits to implement this program.

San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego -$17,714 Establishing a Regional Environmental Education Coordinator This project will match a grant from the California State Department of Education to establish a full time coordinator  to build capacity to deliver quality environmental education in the San Diego region, a large diverse area encompassing ocean, urban, rural, desert and mountain habitats.  This position, centrally housed in the natural history museum, will provide resources, promote networking, and serve as a clearing house to a potential audience of 20,000 K-12 teachers in 43 public school districts, private schools, and non-formal education programs.

Santa Monica Baykeeper, Marina del Rey -$10,000 Beachkeepers This project will establish a partnership of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Marine Institute, Harbor Safety Committee, and Wilmington Homeowners Association to train residents in monitoring and documenting storm drain pollution of coastal habitats in their neighborhoods along a sixty mile coastline of  Santa Monica Bay. Training in monitoring techniques will be offered to high school students and homeowner association members.  The project will stage follow up monthly group meetings in various rotating neighborhoods where reports of previous monitoring will be heard and plans made to determine what further action may be required.