By Daily Press staff
With a $250,000 grant from the Coastal Conservancy, the California State Parks Foundation has announced the launch of its new environmental education program, Coast Alive. The $1.3 million Coast Alive program combines classroom education, field study and investigation at local state parks in four California counties.
Coast Alive is designed to bring fifth through ninth grade students and their teachers into several southern coastal state parks and coastal conservancy sites. The program allows teachers and students to examine California’s marine ecology and its role in preserving the coast’s natural and cultural history. Coast Alive’s main goals are to protect and restore the natural habitat of the coastline and to promote educational projects that are accessible to urban populations.
The California Institute for Biodiversity and state parks are creating the project curriculum and coordinating teacher preparation. More than 2,500 teachers in the urban, suburban and rural areas of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties will be trained to bring 50,000 students to upland and coastal sites in their local watersheds. Through interactive and multi-media technology, Coast Alive will engage and educate more than 90,000 school children in the classroom. Over the life of the project, 180,000 southern California students will be educated on coastal restoration and conservation.
This is the California State Parks Foundation’s first program that directly involves teacher training and enhances the science and environmental education curriculum. Phase one of Coast Alive, which began in August, involves the planning and implementation of the program, securing funding and conducting outreach to teachers in Southern California. Phase two of the program involves intensive week-long training workshops to ensure that participating teachers are certified and to instruct those participating to recruit additional teachers.
The California State Parks Foundation helps protect, enhance and advocate on behalf of California’s 277 state parks. Since its inception in 1969, the foundation has raised more than $110 million.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 29, 2003. Read the original PDF.