Education Environmentalists through Field Trips

the first question

um during the time you taught at lg how

did you address

environmental education

so um in terms of environmental

education

we started this trip called the

catalina island field trip and it was

the

kind of big thing that happened

in my ap bio class which i taught for

since 1989 and it was that particular

course

where i was able to take kids out into

the field

and get them to experience in a real way

environmental education

and another thing that i did was when i

was department chair

of the science department i

asked one of our teachers our young

teachers amelia de la paz

if she would be interested in starting

an ap

environmental science class and so that

was

201

10 was the first year we started

an ap environmental science class and

that was awesome

because you know the whole class

is environmental science and she’s such

a popular teacher she’s such a great

teacher

that it filled up and she has five

sections

of um ap environmental science which

we’ve

it’s been running now for 10 11 years

which is fantastic

how did you initiate the catalina trip

and how long has it been

so i began teaching uh in 1980

in los angeles at a little private

school and

for two years and they that’s where i

first went to catalina island with we

went for an entire week actually

because they believe so strongly in

environmental education

and then when i came up to los gatos

high school

i started in 84 and in 1989 i finally

started teaching ap bio

and that’s when i initiated the ap the

catalina trip

and it started out um very small just i

think 12 kids

and we took a couple of cars down drove

down to l.a

and um did the trip so what is the main

focus of the trip

and how does it relate to building

awareness of climate change

so the main focus of the trip has always

been

in my mind uh two

several folds first of all um number one

i think the best way for kids to learn

is to get out of the classroom

and so whenever i can take kids on field

trips

i know that those will be the most

memorable things that happened to them

in high school

and so that was number one let’s get

them out of the classroom let’s get them

out into the environment

and one of my missions

in doing this trip is um

because i had such a wonderful

experience when i took kids down there

in my first couple years teaching i knew

how magical the place was

and i knew that it would allow kids

to fall in love with nature with the

environment

and to me if you can get someone to fall

in love

with the environment with nature then

you’ve got an environmentalist for the

rest of your life

and so you don’t have to specifically

teach

like climate change because when i

started teaching when i started taking

kids down to um catalina island

even though climate change was an issue

it was not the issue that is today it

wasn’t a big

so it was not really on the horizon but

now it’s a big issue

well we’ve taken kids down to cali

island for so many years now

that we have thousands of kids who are

environmentalists

and so even though we didn’t

specifically teach them about

climate change i am sure they are all

voting in a way

in doing things in their lives that will

help promote

awareness of climate change and best

practices in terms of

helping our climate being a sophomore

i’ve already heard it from multiple

students about the trip those who have

gone

have special memories and others look

forward to when they’ll be able to go

what makes it so special well

i mean first of all it’s

three it’s a three-day trip um we

two classes go ap bio

and ap environmental science and

probably about

60 of each of those classes go

and we take two airplanes because

there’s so many people now

we have to fly two airplanes down and

this whole weekend is just a bonding

experience with

all these different kids because you

have juniors and seniors

you have ap bio and ap environmental

science and we mix

everything up so it just becomes a very

inclusive

family atmosphere and we really

encourage you know juniors to mix with

seniors and ap biology mixed with

mixed with environmental ap

environmental science

um you know there’s the dorms they get

to live in the dorms which is really

cool we all eat together in a dining

room

um the instructors are just fantastic

they’re super enthusiastic

and we do so many things it’s like at

the end of the

weekend you you can’t imagine you’ve

only been there for three days it feels

like you’ve been there for like two

weeks

because we’ve done so many amazing

different things

um so to say any one special thing it’s

hard to say

but it’s the whole experience is i would

say it’s magical

and then we were wondering uh how many

students do you think you’ve

taken to on the trip over the years you

know it’s hard to say

um i’d have to sit down and calculate

like i said i think the first year

i took about 12 kids from hippie bio i

think i had one ap bio class that year

it was my very first year of teaching ap

bio i

took 12 kids in a couple cars and then

it just kept growing and growing and

growing as ap bio i got more ap

biosections

and then amelia uh you know she

we take her kids down so

most recently we’re taking around

somewhere between around 130 to 140 kids

every year now and um you just

multiply that by well we’ve been doing

that for almost

10 or 11 years because the two classes

combined and then before that

maybe half the amount so you know

certainly

we’ve taken uh at least you know over a

thousand

you know several thousand kids maybe

and i would say to you guys you you know

things can begin like a little mustard

seed and then they just get bigger and

bigger and bigger and bigger

and you have no idea i had no idea

that my first year of teaching in 1980

and i went with this little private

school

down to this you know place on catalina

island that

someday i would be leading

almost 140 kids every year

down to this place um with you know it’s

just

it’s amazing and it has had such an

impact on so many kids

i mean like one of my students for

instance um

what my one of my very first students i

had she

ended up working at the children’s

discovery museum

and started a program which is called

bio site

where you bring fourth graders and have

the

high school teachers teach the fourth

graders

stream ecology i knew that she was doing

this

and of course she was inspired to go

into environmental science because of

the catalina trip and then when we

started

ap environmental science i asked mrs de

la paz

would you like to meet my friend and she

said absolutely

and so that year she started a biocide

program at last gas high school so we’ve

been doing that now

since 2010 and bringing in fourth

graders

and now those fourth graders are now

high school students

uh so and they’re teaching fourth

graders as well so there’s another piece

you know that this it’s just amazing

what you can do you start out small

and you never know you know they say a

teacher never knows where their

influence will stop

and i believe that’s really true and um

this this i just gave you a little

example of

you know how that how that works

can i read a quote to you yes please

yeah so this is a quote um you may know

rachel um carson is a um

she was really the one that started the

environmental movement

back in the late 50s early 60s she wrote

a book called silent spring

super famous and she has this wonderful

quote i just want to read to you

i mean this is kind of an inspiration

for

you ask you know why do you take this

trip to catalina island and this is one

of the reasons

she said if a child is to keep alive his

inborn sense of wonder

he needs the companionship of at least

one adult

who can share it rediscovering with him

the joy excitement and mystery of the

world we live in

and that’s a quote from rachel carson

and i just think it really

explains what i was doing when i was

teaching

and what amelia kathy messenger jim

bryant are now doing

as they continue this trip into the

future