A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Grant of $2336.00 funded this “Ocean Guardians” class created by Jennifer Hartigan at Lincoln Middle School. These grants fund watershed and/or ocean stewardship projects in schools. The project must include a hands-on component, measurable results, and community outreach by students. Students presented their project to the entire student body (900 students), our PTA, our School Site Council (two times), our Parent Information Night, our Founders’ Day Celebration, and an Alameda City Council Meeting.

We were scheduled to present at a press conference with Congresswoman Barbara Lee in November, but unfortunately the event was cancelled. Two articles written by our Journalism class for our school newspaper are published on the Lincoln website. We also plan to have an article published in the local newspaper about our project.

The Environmental Science class is part of the sixth grade elective wheel. Six groups of thirty students (180 total) rotate through the curriculum during the school year. Each group studies Environmental Science for six weeks.

NOAA provides curriculum support aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and the Ocean Literacy Principles. This class extends student learning about human impact on the environment from our Middle School Full Option Science System (FOSS) course “Populations and Ecosystems.” Our project aligns with “Save the Bay’s” goal to increase the San Francisco Bay wetlands from under 50,000 to 100,000 acres over the next decade. “Save the Bay” at the Martin Luther King Regional Shoreline has donated native plants and provided guidance for our project. The East Bay Regional Parks are providing support for us to create a permanent sign to install along our bike path to raise community awareness. Additionally, the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary presented a class on wetlands and their impact on ocean health.

Students from the class will present details of the project.