Participating Reserve: Sedgwick Reserve

Funded by: UCSB Faculty Outreach Grants, Bella Vista Foundation, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, UCSB Women’s Faculty Club, Denny Goodchild Kids in Nature Memorial Fund, and Private Donors

Participating Institutions: UCSB Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, and Sedgwick Reserve

Additional Information: Transect 21: 1 (Spring 2003): “Kids in Nature Trains the Next Generation of Earth’s Caretakers at Sedgwick Reserve” (pages 12-14). A PDF of this article can be accessed at: http://nrs.ucop.edu/Transect-Sedgwick.htm.

Kids in Nature (KIN) is a year-long program that introduces underserved fourth- to sixth-grade students in northern Santa Barbara County to science and the environment. Now entering its fifth year, the program brings the students on regular trips to the Sedgwick Reserve and the UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus for activities that interweave science, the arts, and technology. Depending upon funding, anywhere from 135 to 240 students participate each year.

KIN targets elementary schools that feed into low-performing high schools. These schools tend to score low on standardized tests and serve higher percentages of underserved and underrepresented students. All KIN schools are in the federal Title I program for economically disadvantaged schools. The program’s goals are to excite these students about science, teach them to care about the environment, and encourage them to consider attending college. All KIN activities are designed to help students meet grade-level California Science and Visual Arts Standards.

The program features six field trips spread throughout the school year: five three-hour sessions at the Sedgwick Reserve and one three-hour session at UCSB. An additional general campus awareness visit to UCSB is also offered, when funding is available. During their visits to the reserve, the students work in groups of four to six under the guidance of a specially trained KIN docent.

            Sedgwick Reserve
             Docent Program

One major key to the success of the Sedgwick Reserve’s environmental education programs is the dedication and creativity of more than 100 docent volunteers. The docent program was established in 2001 to help the reserve director expand educational opportunities. The docents’ primary function is to interpret the landscape, ecology, and research activities for both K-12 students and public visitors. Through the years, they have introduced more than 10,000 visitors to University-level research, as well as the area’s natural history. Docents involved in the Kids in Nature program work with the same group of students for an entire school year, forming a close intergenerational bond that facilitates learning.

Each fall the reserve presents a training course of seventeen sessions for new docents. These sessions cover a wide range of topics, from geology and oak biology to environmental dance and movement. The instructors include field research scientists, local experts in specific fields, and faculty from UCSB, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Current docents also take regular refresher courses on a monthly basis.

This docent remains with the group throughout the year, providing students with a strong mentor. Each group is challenged to restore a 25-square-meter plot of land along Figueroa Creek, using native plants grown in the reserve’s onsite nursery. During their first visit, the students tour the nursery to learn about the different plants.

They then work together to design their restoration, prepare the site, and put in the plants. Part of each subsequent visit is spent tending the plots and recording plant growth, using digital cameras and other tools. During each visit, the students also take hikes to explore other aspects of the reserve’s ecology or geology. On each hike, the docents provide binoculars to encourage the students to make observations and broaden their understanding of the interrelatedness of all aspects of nature.

On their visit to UCSB’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration, students investigate plant structure and function and participate in hands-on laboratory activities that teach them how to use microscopes and other laboratory equipment. They also visit the herbarium, restored natural areas on campus, and the bird and live reptile collections to learn more about native plants, animals, and habitats. Lessons the students learn on these field trips are reinforced by classroom activities back at their schools. Each KIN class receives microscopes, prepared slides, software, and other materials to study plant structure. Each student gets his or her own KIN journal to record field and laboratory observations throughout the year.

The KIN experience culminates on Celebration Day, when students from all the schools come together to display their reports, writings, artwork, and multimedia productions to parents and the public. As well as presenting their own work, the children are also treated to a wildlife presentation and a barbeque lunch.