With the new year upon us, the Sierra Streams Education Program wanted to take the time to reflect on what an amazing year we had in 2016 with the students of Nevada County. We love to keep our members up-to-date on all of the exciting science projects that students have worked on with our team of dedicated scientists and educators. It is our goal to increase scientific literacy among all students and provide engaging experiences that connect each child to their local environment. It has been an honor to work with a diverse set of students, teachers, and community members this year. Some highlights include:
Yuba River Charter School (YRCS): Sierra Streams Institute has been providing watershed science hands-on experiences to YRCS 7th grade students for the past four years. The curriculum provides students with an understanding of the astounding physiological changes our local chinook salmon must go through during their life cycle in order to live in both freshwater and saltwater environments. Students also learn about the importance of genetics for the survival of the salmon population as well as other key issues related to the conservation of the chinook in our watershed. This year, we are excited that the project will culminate in group projects presented at the STEAM Expo held by Nevada County Superintendent of Schools on March 25th for the entire community to enjoy.
Forest Charter School and Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning: With a grant from the American Society of Plant Biologists, we developed a comprehensive climate change and phenology study with the 11th and 12th grade in the Global Studies Academy at Forest Charter School and seventy 9th grade students at Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning. In February and March, we went into the classroom to lay the groundwork, teaching lessons introducing the concept of phenology, delving into plant anatomy and phenophase observations in a plant lab, and setting up the methods for data collection in the field. In April, we spent more time outside collecting data at four locations: Forest Charter School, Pioneer Park, Empire Mine State Historic Park, and Adam Ryan Reserve. The data collected by students contributed to ongoing citizen science projects with both SSI and the National Phenology Network (NPN). The NPN hosts Nature’s Notebook, the database where students input their data. NPN can then use this data in studies that examine shifts in phenophases over time, and understand what could be driving those changes. This was very exciting because students could see how their observations contributed to a larger national understanding of potential impacts of climate change.
Lyman Gilmore Middle School: With a grant from the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail program, Sierra Streams Institute expanded our 7th grade Source to Sea program to 125 students at the largest middle school in the county. We are currently in the middle of program implementation, having completed instruction about the Yuba river watershed, salmon life history, genetics, and salmon scale ageing with microscopes. We also partnered with SYRCL to take students from 8 classes, including 5 from Lyman Gilmore, on rafting salmon tours on the lower Yuba to experience the incredible chinook spawning season.
Grizzly Hill School: We were fortunate to be able to serve every student in grades K-8 with our DROPS grant made possible through the California State Water Resources Control Board. Students learned all about water properties and best management practices to conserve water. Each class designed a water infiltration project for their school that will be constructed in the near future. The students in grades 5-6 also participated in our popular Source to Sea salmon program this past fall and will create projects for the Nevada County STEAM Expo on March 25th.
Adventures in Learning: This program is run by the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools in partnership with Sierra Streams Institute. The program, serving 200 Kindergarten through 5th graders, is carefully crafted to assist struggling students in retaining critical math and reading skills over the summer months while building their enthusiasm for the coming school year. We like to think that building enthusiasm is what we do best. With 8 years of experience teaching hands-on watershed science, our responsibility for the AIL program is to create and teach a science curriculum that has students so engaged that they walk away each day with a love of learning. And what they are learning are the foundational scientific principles that will serve them throughout middle school and beyond.
Nisenan Gathering Garden: The Nisenan Gathering Garden was created in 2016 to enhance the Tribute Trail in Nevada City by including culturally significant native plants as part of a restoration effort along the trail. The Gathering Garden, which provides an assemblage of these native plants, complements this portion of the Tribute Trail as it is dedicated to the Nisenan. In spring 2016, two school field trips brought 45 students in grades 6-8 from Forest Charter and Yuba River Charter schools to the Gathering Garden. Students participated in a variety of activities that connected them to this place, as well as to Nisenan culture and uses of native plants. Activities included: a “Walk and Talk” to the garden from the school; a Nisenan cultural introduction and song from Shelly Covert, tribal secretary, at the site; a “back-to-back” plant describing and guessing game to teach them plant identification; rotations through plant-use stations and a matching game to teach about traditional plant uses; garden work including planting, building habitat brush piles, lining trails; and a closing ceremony with Shelly.
STEAM Expo: Sierra Streams had the honor of setting up an exhibit at the wildly successfully Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) Expo held by the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools (NCSOS) at the fairgrounds in Grass Valley. The three day event highlighted science, engineering, and art projects by students attending Nevada County Schools. Scores of projects and exhibitions were on display. We are looking forward to contributing another exhibit on salmon life cycles in the Yuba river watershed in partnership with Lyman Gilmore Middle School, Yuba River Charter School, and Grizzly Hill for the second annual STEAM Expo on March 25th at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Feel free to stop by to see the amazing work our students have accomplished over the spring!
FIT+ Teacher Training: FIT+ is a new professional development program of the Northern California Society of American Foresters and UC Cooperative Extension Project Learning Tree designed for K-12 teachers. Sierra Streams Institute partnered with FIT+ to develop and lead the training last October at the Sierra Foothill Research Extension Center. Participants received a Project WET Professional Development Certificate and took home a K-12 Activity Guide with over 90 interdisciplinary activities designed to complement existing curricula and support current and emerging standards. In addition to modeling Project WET activities, the workshop agenda included talks from science experts and natural resource professionals, and discussions of lesson-planning, Common Core, and NGSS.
Conference Presentations: The education team attended and presented at three conferences this past year! In spring, we presented at the Society for Freshwater Sciences Conference with a presentation titled: Connecting with our Local Environment – Citizen Science in Action. At the California Science Teachers Association Conference, we presented a 90 minute workshop on our plant phenology research and curriculum. Lastly, we presented a poster on Phenology and Citizen Science at the California Naturalist Statewide Conference.
UC California Naturalists: During our third annual California Naturalists Program at Sierra Streams Institute, adult students from a diverse range of backgrounds came together for 10 weeks of interactive field-based lessons led by Susan Sanford. Classes featured local experts in citizen science, geology, water, plants, forests, energy, and animals which allowed many of the budding Naturalists to participate in local projects. The passion and dedication with which every student approached their work was truly contagious. Our 2017 program that begins March 8th is already filling up fast. To learn more and sign up, visit the Sierra Streams California Naturalist website.