Research Project: Gulf Coast Stewards of Tomorrow: Working Towards a Sustainable Future through At-Sea Learning for South Texas Middle and High School Students
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- Yvon-Lewis, Shari
- Shamberger, Kathryn
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Public literacy is the foundation to promote changes in societal views of the relevance of critically important environmental issues that directly effect a local population. Without a clear linkage of how an environmental issue impacts everyday citizens, the desire to take action on improving these issues is often lost. Public literacy oftentimes begins in the middle and high school (grades 6-12) setting, where students are learning to form their own independent opinions on environmental issues. A key way to reinforce these issues is through experiential learning in the classroom and, even more impactful, in the field. When students are emotionally engaged in topics about the natural environment, they experience an overall change in their attitude towards the
environment, as well as an increased desire to change their own habits to further protect the environment (Ballantyne and Packer, 2002). In fact, programs that are most effective at engaging students do so by showing students first hand local environmental impacts, combined with hands-on research activities and classroom lesson plans (Ballantyne et al., 2001).
This project is designed to educate young citizens on local environmental impacts, and empower them to work towards improving the environment through stewardship. It will focus on Corpus Christi Bay (CCB), a semi-tropical bay on the Texas coast located approximately 136 mi south of San Antonio, and 179 mi southwest of Houston, that is largely used for commercial and recreational fishing. As with most bays and estuaries, human impact on the bay is substantial with wastewater outfalls, storm water runoff, substantial agricultural activity within the watershed (cotton, sorghum and corn) that adds nutrients, and altered freshwater flow due to irrigation needs and loss of wetlands to urban development. This, in turn, leads to poor water quality.
This project helps to further the goals of the EPA Strategic Goal of “Cross Agency Strategy: Working Toward a Sustainable Future” through Environmental Education and Outreach (Priority III) by aiming to:
• Educate young citizens on the impacts of non-point source pollution to CCB, the importance of water conservations and storm water sequestration, impacts of everyday actions on the acidity of estuaries and the coastal ocean, and how coastal ecosystems relates to the local economy.
• Empower teachers and students with knowledge to share with their community on the importance of being stewards of the environment.
• Create new classroom lesson plans that focus on the improvement of water quality,preservations of the marine habitat, and coastal community resilience.
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Cooperative Agreement