The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center’s 2019 Explore the Coast program is well underway, teaching all 153 fifth-grade students at Guadalupe’s Kermit McKenzie Intermediate School about coastal ecosystems and human impacts.
The free semester-long program is designed to increase students’ understanding of watersheds and connections between land and sea, while emphasizing the importance of pollution prevention.
Other goals include increasing students’ educational aspirations and supplementing fifth-grade science curriculum to help increase state testing scores.
Explore the Coast is comprised of three modules with different themes implemented from January to June. Each module includes three in-class lessons along with a field trip that complements each topic.
In January, students learned about what lives in the ocean by studying marine ecosystems with a trip to the Monterey Aquarium. More recently, students visited Santa Cruz Island (part of Channel Islands National Park) to investigate local island habitats.
“I learned that all the animals in the ocean get a lot of their energy from different sources, including the sun,” said student Ricardo Bojorquez.
In the coming weeks, the program will conclude with lessons about local watersheds and human impacts with a visit to the students’ local habitats and watersheds — Morro Bay National Estuary and Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve.
“One of my favorite things about this program is providing memorable experiences for our students,” said Erin Gardner, Dunes Center educational programs coordinator.
“It’s one thing to work with them in the classroom, but it is entirely another thing to have the opportunity to take them out to experience California’s unparalleled coastlines first-hand,” Gardner said.
“We’re hoping that these experiences spark their curiosity to continue to learn about our natural spaces, and ultimately encourage them do their part in caring for our coastal environments.”
Explore the Coast is made possible through grants from the California State Coastal Conservancy, The Towbes Group, and Aera Energy.
“This program is the result of our community coming together to support our local students,” said Doug Jenzen, Dunes Center executive director.
“It’s inspiring to know that different stakeholders are not only willing, but eager to work together to provide once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for Guadalupe’s fifth-graders,” he said.
For some students, the trips to the coast will be their first experience at the beach.
“I think it’s easy to assume that students who live near an ocean or beach have experienced coastal ecosystems, but the fact is that some students in Guadalupe have not had that experience,” said Rick Rust, public affairs project manager for Aera Energy.
“It is essential that students learn about ocean ecosystems and understand how those ecosystems can be impacted,” he said.
“We at Aera are proud to partner with the Dunes Center to make Explore the Coast curriculum and field trips a part of the fifth-grade experience in Guadalupe.”
The Dunes Center is a natural history museum that works to conserve the unique ecosystem of the local dunes through education, research, and cooperative stewardship.
Known for its display of artifacts from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 The Ten Commandments, the Dunes Center offers guided community hikes, classroom education programs, and field trips that focus on the area’s flora and fauna, as well as its history.
For more about the Explore the Coast program, call the Dunes Center, 805-343-2455 or email admin@dunescenter.org. Visit www.dunescenter.org.
— Christina Hernandez for The Dunes Center.
