By Nathan Zabel, Education Programs Manager
This school year, NSEA’s Students for Salmon (SFS) education program expanded programming to include salmon rearing aquariums and professional development workshops for teachers on our newly revised teacher-led curriculum.
SFS is offered at no cost to the school districts for all 4th grade students throughout Whatcom County. Students learn about Pacific salmon, their habitat needs, and transform into “stream scientists,” studying a local waterway before participating in a stewardship project to leave that waterway in better condition for salmon.
This school year, 1,902 students from 81 classrooms participated in SFS. Collectively, they studied 16 local creeks and worked hard to improve the riparian zones of those creeks, planting 34 native trees and shrubs and removing 4,900 pounds of invasive vegetation.
Thanks to funding from National Oceanic Atmospheric Association - Bay Watershed Education and Training, NSEA hosted full day workshops for 62 teachers on the recently updated curriculum. The six curriculum units build upon each other creating a learning cycle facilitated by teachers in the classroom to extend the learning and bring the program full circle, leaving their students with a deeper knowledge of salmon, the threats they face in our region, and actions they can take to help salmon in their local watersheds.
Additionally, thanks to funding from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), students from 17 schools got to raise salmon from eggs to fry, before releasing them into their creek of study, connecting what they learned in the classroom and in the field with the importance of environmental stewardship to support salmon recovery.
The value of the SFS program is a combination of NSEA-led programming and a teacher facilitated in-class curriculum, while raising salmon in their classrooms. Students were fully immersed in salmon and watershed science education, providing a continuum from awareness to action, with the ultimate goal of environmental stewardship. One teacher recently summarized the impact of the SFS program. “It taught my students a new respect for our salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The SFS Curriculum is very engaging and teacher friendly. The students love being scientists, the restoration project helps the students feel like they have contributed something wonderful to their community and the future salmon.”
