K-12 Environmental Education in the NRS
Schools are major users of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System sites. The K-12 environmental education activities supported by the NRS both enable and reinforce in distinctive ways the education offered in the schools. Moreover, because of the very limited amount of time dedicated in the schools to environmental education, field trips to NRS sites represent a significant fraction of students’ exposure to environmental studies in a school year. Because of the dramatically effective, hands-on activities that K-12 students engage in at reserves, even a brief visit may leave deep and lasting impressions, lessons that are never forgotten and can even be life-changing.

Environmental education represents a major and valuable activity throughout the Natural Reserve System. Each year, more than 10,600 children participate in a wide variety of programs at NRS reserves, always under the guidance of University faculty and students, reserve staff, docents, and other public volunteers.  For many children, their visit to an NRS reserve gives them their first insights into the functioning of the natural world. This review provides use statistics for 2003-04, the most recent year for which compiled data are available, and highlights programs with special features offered in 2004-05.

Educational programs take many forms at NRS reserves. Inner city students in Los Angeles might take a daylong field trip to the Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve to explore a chaparral ecosystem. Latino students from north of Santa Barbara might be given the opportunity to visit the Sedgwick Reserve throughout the school year to restore an eroded creek bed. For students from Mammoth Lakes, a weekend might be spent planting a native landscape at the local junior college under the guidance of a reserve educator. For high school students near Lake Tahoe, an intensive, six-week summer course at the Sagehen Creek Field Station fosters their leadership skills and mastery of English.