Source to Sea: River to the Students

K-12 STEAM education

Central LA East LA South LA San Gabriel Valley West LA San Fernando Valley Gateway Cities South Bay Long Beach Antelope Valley

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The LA River is the foundation upon which Los Angeles was built yet its biodiversity, green space, and potential for climate resilience remains largely unknown. The River’s watershed covers the most densely populated, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse region of the country, and nearly 100% of wetlands and riparian habitats have been lost and green space is hard to come by – especially in low-income and BIPOC communities. This is significant as connection to nature is a well-established determinant of health – physically, mentally and socio-economically. To equitize access to environmental STEM education, eco-careers, and, by extension, green space access for communities of need, we’ll use our River Rover mobile museum to provide Source to Sea to more distant LA County schools. Utilizing a place-based model taking the River to the students, we increase agency and ability to take part in watershed rejuvenation while promoting green spaces and STEM careers for generations to come.

Source to Sea immerses grade 3-12 students in the LA Watershed and River as living entities supporting biodiversity, recreation, and a crucial water source. Free to Title I schools, the course includes a combined 4 hours of in-class lessons and hands-on River Rover visit aligned with CA Common Core and NGSS linked to STEM education.
· Classroom Lessons: The History of the LA River; Biodiversity: The Interconnectedness Between Living & Nonliving Things
· River Rover School Visit: Students compare states of the River, study biodiversity, the riparian ecosystem and its interactivity with human impacts, a dynamic 3D watershed, water conservation & management, and the connection between the environment and public health.
Source to Sea immerses grade 3-12 students in the LA Watershed as living entities supporting biodiversity, recreation, and a crucial water source. Free to Title I schools, the course includes a combined 4 hours of in-class lessons and hands-on River Rover visit aligned with CA Common Core and NGSS linked to STEM education.st their design’s efficacy for water capture and flow and collectively present their findings to the class. Advanced topics include stormwater impacts, heat island effects and thermodynamic testing, and introductions to STEM career paths.
·Take-Home Toolkit: Receive family friendly enduring content and activities extending learning to the home, inclusive of virtual field guides of native plants and birds found in their community.

We envision equitably increased access to natural spaces and generations of students transforming LA's watershed into a dynamic, functioning ecosystem that reduces flood risk, cleans the air, cools temperatures, and supports the biodiversity essential to our collective wellbeing. We see this daily in people discovering that rivers and green space are places of refuge creating park-rich neighborhoods, in our children who excitedly share what they've learned at their field trips with their parents immersed in water ecology, building a brighter future for our County. We envision a Source to Sea expanded beyond our local 5,500 students in a school year and actively present throughout the County. As teachers say, “The curriculum … provides opportunities for the children to classify, to view themselves as problem solvers, learn about the River's importance to the people, and so much more. This covers many subject areas and encourages students to see that everything is interconnected.”