Commentary: Program gets schoolchidlren interested in environment
The Newport Banning Land Trust’s field science education program is aimed at getting high school students engaged in the Orange County coastal environment.
The program focuses on collecting, analyzing and reporting data collected at Newport Banning Ranch. High school students learn a variety of field techniques for scientific inquiry and collect data for analysis, which is important for land management.
In addition to the field research, they also learn to relate field data to ecological processes, record the data they gather in the field and critically analyze their findings.
This program is unique because the students are thinking on their own and creating their own experiments with professional guidance from the Newport Banning Land Trust advisory team and its nonprofit partner, the Institute for Conservation Research and Education.
As opposed to sitting in a classroom, and at a time where schools science programs are being cut, this innovative hands-on program brings science to life for the students.
We want students to learn and answer their own questions through scientific methods and share the results with their peers. The program also gives students the edge they need in college for field biology courses that involve water chemistry or biology and on presentation methods.
The program is part of the land trust’s Community Based Restoration Program, which is supplemented by the native plant nursery at its office in Costa Mesa.
Newport Banning Ranch is proposing to establish a nature preserve of more than 260 acres and is working on a program that will result in the land trust becoming the steward for this open space.
Public-private partnerships such as ours are taking an important idea and making it a reality. Thanks to the initial funding of this program by Newport Banning Ranch, we have been able to provide science students with opportunities that would otherwise be limited to just a chapter in a science text book or a classroom lecture.
The Newport Banning Land Trust mission is to preserve and enhance the natural values of the designated open space land on the Newport Banning Ranch property while creating educational and access opportunities for students and the public. The land trust will continue to reach out to local schools through educational and interpretive programs.
ROBYN VETTRAINO is the executive director of Newport Banning Land Trust, acting Orange Coast River Park project manager and a member of Surfrider Foundation.