Students Discover the Impact of Marine Debris

Every time I present at a school, I am always struck by how hungry students are for hands-on environmental education. Revently, I had the pleasure of meeting with over 200 students from Linda Vista Elementary and Carson Elementary school.SDCK_1

The students were in the middle of an environmental curriculum and were looking for additional engagement around the topic of water quality and pollution control. To augment their learning, San Diego Coastkeeper came in to teach a hands-on lesson from Project SWELL,  school-based science curriculum that teaches children about the importance of the San Diego region’s waters.

Each lesson began with a simple question: What is marine debris and how does it affect the animals that live in marine environments? After spending a few minutes brainstorming ideas the students got an opportunity to model how entanglement can affect a sea animal.

Sarah Hargis, the Literacy Supervisor at Linda Vista Elementary had this to say about the presentation:

“[This] presentation not only gave real insight to our students’ questions, but also gave them hands-on activities that simulated real situations that occur in the environment due to human negligence. We wouldn’t have been able to have a successful environmentalism unit without Ms. Gipson’s presentation. We look forward to having her visit again and continue being part of our effort to educate students on the environment.”SDCK_2

Thanks Sarah! I look forward to working with your students again.

Interested in learning more about Project SWELL? Visit us online at www.projectswell.org