Our current program den wide does not ensure this learning result is addressed in a uniform way. It is an aspect we wish to address. At the ninth grade the yearly Monterey Bay Aquarium trip does have teachers address this in curriculum before the trip in January; however, at the upper grade levels, the consistency of carrying on this message needs to be further developed. Tenth grade language arts has evolved to include a pesticide awareness element in curriculum with the study of VOICES FROM THE FIELDS, a tale about migrant workers. Developing environment issues within regular curriculum is a focus of the coming year in regard to the language arts program at the upper grade levels through help of the grants from McCarthy Dressman and National Environment Education Foundation.

Monterey Bay Aquarium 9th Grade Trip

Each year the ninth grade classes take a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the hopes of beginning an appreciation of ocean conservation. As part of the English 1 curriculum in Den 2, the understanding of habitats related to the watershed , beach and dunes, and coastal waters are an essential pre-requisite to this trip. See the link below to the Project S.E.E. lessons related to this. All subject areas are represented but English is committed to doing these each year. It is a possibility that other subject areas will utilize these lessons as a means of systematic inclusion of environment curriculum in the upper grades.
http://www.fitzwerc.org/wlinks/projectsee.htm

The WATCH Program (WATSONVILLE AREA TEENS CONSERVING HABITATS)

>Monterey Bay Aquarium has received a three-year, $772,000 grant from Nokia that will allow a significant expansion of the aquarium’s long-term environmental education partnership with Pajaro Valley Unified School District to bring the program to more high school students in the district. The grant provides both funds and equipment for Watsonville Area Teens Conserving Habitats (WATCH) – a school year and summer program that includes in-class and experiential out-of-school activities for Watsonville/Pajaro Valley High School students. Den 2 teachers who participated this past summer are Greg Tucker (English 3 & 4), Thomas May (Math B and Algebra 1), and Rich Moran (Integrated Science and Biology) who was a coordinator of this year’s program.

Coastal Clean Up

In September each year, Pajaro Valley High School recruits students to earn community service credit for participating in the annual Coastal Clean Up at Struve slough near the high school. This is the 3rd year the event will be held at the Pajaro Valley school site.