Channelkeeper has joined forces with the Ty Warner Sea Center to bring watershed education to young Sea Center visitors. As part of the Channel WATCH (Watershed Activities for Teaching Coastal Health) program, which we launched in the fall of 2006, Channelkeeper staff teaches students on field trips to the Sea Center about the connection between human activities, local creeks and watersheds, and the Santa Barbara Channel. Channelkeeper leads students on a short excursion to the mouth of Mission Creek where they use scientific monitoring equipment to test different water quality parameters and then learn about the meaning of their findings for water quality and aquatic life. We then guide students back to the Sea Center, where they test ocean water quality through the wet deck and compare it to the results of their creek samples, and learn more about watersheds through a video we produced demonstrating the connections between human activities in watersheds and their impacts on marine life in the Santa Barbara Channel. Students complete a comprehensive worksheet that is also used for follow-up activities in their classroom using the water quality data they collected. The goal of the program is to promote marine environmental stewardship among today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders.

The curriculum was developed for 4th-6th grade, but is applicable to other grades as well. This program is currently funded through a NOAA Bay Watershed education and Training (B-WET) grant. http://www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/bwet/welcome.html

To schedule a Channel WATCH field trip, please contact the Ty Warner Sea Center, at sbusch@sbnature2.org  or 805-962-2526 ext. 108. To schedule a Channel WATCH field trip to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History main campus, please contact Rebecca Coulter at 805-682-4711 ext. 107.

To access our Channel WATCH water quality data, please click here:  Data