Multicultural Education For Resource Issues Threatening Oceans

Programs: Program service accomplishments:during 2017 fiscal and calendar year, the merito foundation was able to successfully serve directly though our merito academy and eeccoa programs (second half of 2016-2017 and first half of 2017-2018 school year) a total of 2,240 stem underrepresented 4th - 12th grade students and 44 in service teachers instructing at public schools in 8 cities of ventura and santa barbara counties, including the cities of santa maria, buellton, goleta, santa barbara, ventura, ojai, fillmore, oxnard, port hueneme, camarillo and simi valley; provided six full days of professional development (pd) training to 44 in service teachers from ventura and santa barbara counties with the aim to increase the capacity of educators in the areas of ocean and environmental education using our authored or adapted merito academy and/or eeccoa curricula versions 2014 and 2017 respectively;provided 68 bilingual in-class presentations to 74 school classes and administered pre-and post program evaluation surveys to 60% of the participating students to assess programs and projects impact (cognitive and attitudinal); trained 9 school groups on the implementation of noaa onms long-term monitoring and experimental training of students (limpets) protocols in support of sandy and rocky intertidal monitoring experiences for students using noaa onms protocols; provided sponsorship of bus transportation, coordination and instruction (with support from partnering organizations staff) to 1,337 students during 44 citizen science in the field experiences at watersheds and coastal sites along the santa barbara channel region during which an average of the least three science-based field activities were performed; and provided sponsorship of boat transportation, coordination and instruction (with support from volunteers) during 7 field experiences at the channel islands for 260 4th-6th grade students during which an average of two science-based field activities were performed. Another important accomplishment was the coordination and collection of students end of academic year projects delivered and filmed between may 15 and june 16, 2017. The merito academy students delivered in teams of 3-5 students vignettes (photos and voice-recorded content) from which merito foundation combined to create 3 videos in support of california coastal conservancy's efforts to promote and protect california coastal trails. A total of 150 project proposals from teams of students entered the eeccoa challenge 2017. The teams authored and presented project proposals to reduce the carbon footprint of their school campus or educate a community about ocean acidification. The top 24 teams were awarded cash prizes totaling $11,017. 74 based on merit to 84 students. We informally informed over 14,200 individuals through various bilingual outreach projects about ocean issues, conservation messages and our efforts in 2017. Approximately 1,000 people visited our booth during earth day festival in santa barbara for 2 days. We presented to 200 people during our presentations at two environmental education conferences in santa rosa and san diego. Reached over 2000 people through social media postings in face book, instagram, tweeter and you tube and over 10,000 news paper publications about our work and outcomes and over 1000 people has seen our video vignettes about california coastal trails. Links to students projects, images, articles, etc: 2017 volunteers: community members to the merito foundations mission volunteered approximately 585 hours in 2017. 168 hours volunteered by board officers and advisors participating in board meetings, networking, outreach event, as volunteer instructors during students filed experiences and reviewing documentation and finances. Ten professionals in stem and/or business fields donated their time as judges reviewing and grading students projects submitted to the eeccoa 2017 challenge, and were present during the eeccoa award ceremony of june 2, 2017. We estimate a total of 97. 5 hours volunteered by the judging panel. Additionally 4 volunteer naturalists acted as instructors during eeccoa 2016-2017 field studies. These volunteers are part of the channel islands naturalists corps (cinc). The naturalists volunteered approximately 50 hours of their time during projects field experiences.