Students are resourceful
Starlight Elementary fifth- graders, carrying recycled clipboards, visit the fish ladder on Corralitos Creek.
CORRALITOS — The fifth- graders meandered down a boardwalk running alongside Corralitos Creek, and crowded onto a wooden deck overlooking a dam and fish ladder.
Watsonville taps the site just off Eureka Canyon Road for about 10 percent of its water supply.
The field trip, part of the Watsonville’s awardwinning Public Works Conservation Academy, was designed to acquaint the Starlight Elementary School students with the natural resource and promote stewardship.
“We want them to care about the resources they’re going to be using every day,” said Tami Stolzenthaler, city environmental education coordinator.
About 4,000 Watsonville students in grades 4 to 12 grade take part in the academy each year. Younger students learn about waste disposal and recycling, the city’s wetlands and water supply, and wastewater treatment. High school students shadow city workers employed in water, wastewater, solid waste and engineering divisions to learn about career opportunities.
In January, the program, run by the city’s public works and utilities department and free to schools in its service area, received a Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, the state’s highest environmental honor.
The lesson was set up as a scavenger hunt, and students carried clipboards made from pieces of cardboard. Attached were papers covered with pictures of things to find.
One student spotted a red- tailed hawk, flying overhead. A group of girls spied a small brown and tan feather, nearly invisible in the camouflage of dry leaf litter beneath their feet. Students asked about wildlife, and about the dial mounted on a water intake pipe. Pressure, a boy guessed correctly when students were asked what they thought the dial measured.