Have you heard? There’s a new environmental curriculum for Lake County’s 3rd-5th graders that weaves community, environment, and responsibility to engage young people in scientific efforts to restore our beautiful county namesake, Clear Lake.
In the summer of 2024 a team of local educators, The Tribal Environmental Education Advisory Committee, UC Davis School of Education’s Community Education and Outreach Specialist, Sarah Angulo and her colleagues, along with The Blue Ribbon Committee on the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake and it’s subcommittee, Lake County Office of Education, and more collaborated on this important set of educational modules for our educators and students to implement in their classrooms and beyond.
To begin the exciting environmental educational project, students are respectfully reminded where this Clear Lake project is set. It is on Clear Lake, the ancient homelands of the following federally recognized tribes: Danoxa, Mountains by the water (Robinson Rancheria); Elem, The people of the water (Elem Indian Colony); Habematolel, Village of the rock people (Habematolel of Upper Lake); Wilokyomi, Ash Home (Middletown Rancheria); Kuhlanapo, Waterlily People and Xabenapo, Rock People (Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians); Ye-Ma-Bax, People of Above and Beyond (Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians); and Koi (Koi Nation).
Additionally, the Caring for Clear Lake curriculum recognizes the following,
“We acknowledge that Xa Batin (Big Water), or Clear Lake, has been the source of creation stories and a main source of life for these people who have called this place home since time immemorial. We acknowledge that the traditional values and life ways of these tribes have in the past and present been symbiotic with nature, spirit, and life.”
The Caring for Clear Lake curriculum offers four modules. They are Our Environment, Our Community, Our Responsibilities, and Our Future. The first, called Our Environment, explains to educators that, to instruct students in these modules, they need a bit of background, which is provided through a resource list and explanations of the lake’s surrounding habitats. These habitats include grasslands, wetlands, chaparral, oak, and riparian environments. All of these landscapes have positive impacts on important biodiversity in the vicinity of our lake. With biodiversity comes the potential for food for native critters, clean waterways, nutrient-rich soils, and support for ailing climate concerns. The rich lessons include both student and educator objectives, vocabulary, materials needed for classroom implementation, and many reflection ideas for students to discuss and develop their own questions.
This rich curriculum includes important components sprinkled all throughout the modules so that our students can learn about the impacts that native and invasive species hold, the importance of monitoring these species, and also, importantly, helps them identify key culturally significant species by exploring data for local Tribes and community organizations. There are endless opportunities via the new curriculum to enrich and inform our students. We all know that these young folks are our precious future.
Through enriching components in a STEAM-inspired education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), such as sketching, poetry, mapping, discussions, field trips, and more, the team efforts that put together the Caring for Clear Lake curriculum are providing an integrated environmental learning process that is creative and is, no doubt, effective.
If you have any questions regarding the modules or to find out about units outside of these grade levels, contact Lake County Office of Education’s Jennifer Kelly at jkelly@lakecoe.org
The curriculum’s four modules are available on the Lake County Office of Education website: https://www.lakecoe.org/edservices/steam/c4c
