Project Lead: Pete Haase

Project Partners: Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (PBNERR), Samish Indian Nation, Conway Middle School, Evergreen Elementary School, Allen Elementary School, and Concrete High School

Project Years (2018 - Present)

Project Overview:  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 program has since expanded to elementary and high school students. 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.

Students get 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. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual program was also developed.  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 including 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.

Program materials for Elementary School and Middle School students can be downloaded 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