Project Years (2018 - Present)
MRC Project Lead: Pete Haase
The Skagit County Marine Resources Committee's Kids on the Beach (KOTB) program, is a program designed in collaboration with Mira Lutz, the UC Davis SeaDoc Society, and Padilla Bay NERR to increase literacy in marine science in Skagit County middle-schools. The goal is to provide school kids with a variety of real hands-on marine science activities in the classroom and on the beach, and build a program that is useful to teachers and patterned after and compatible with existing programs.
2018 was the first year of this pilot rogram which provided an excellent opportunity for eighth grade students from Conway Middle-School to work in teams and prepare scientific proposals, design a research project, prepare field journals for data collection, collect field data, research historical data, conduct data analysis, and present their results at a science symposium. The program was expanded to Conway and La Conner Schools in 2019 and we planned to expand to even more schools in 2020.
Unfortunately, in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so we had to adapt and ended up making the program virtual in collaboration with Padilla Bay NERR. Two versions of the curriculum were created for students with internet access and for students without internet access. The curriculum included 30 minutes of activities online and 30 minutes offline. There was a mix of videos, games, coloring pages, science journals, and questions and answers. The virtual program was made easily accessible to teachers and students from many different school districts. We now have a really good template for both in-person and virtual programs for schools in the spring of 2021.
2020 Program materials for Elementary School and Middle School students can be dowloaded here:
Elementary School Online Program:
Elementary Kids on the Beach
Elementary School Offline Program:
Elementary Kids on the Beach
Middle School Online Program:
Middle School Kids on the Beach
Middle School Offline Program:
Middle School Kids on the Beach
The documents can also be downloaded below.
If your school is interested in participating in the Kids on the Beach program, please contact Susan Wood, Education Coordinator at Padilla Bay NERR: susan.wood@ecy.wa.gov. 360-428-1066.