GRAHAM MONTGOMERY, UCLA BIOLOGY & EVOLUTONARY CENTER
The overall goal of our unit is to get people thinking about the connection between biodiversity, green space and their mental health, and how those resources might be distributed unequally across the landscape, as well as what students might be able to do about it.
EDITH DE GUZMAN, UC DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES, UCLA LUSKIN CENTER FOR INNOVATION
So we’ve created essentially very far from natural set of conditions. There are solutions that are practical and implementable starting at the campus level or at the home level. It’s really critical to have that changing science inform how we educate and engage students and the next generation in not only understanding the problems, but then also providing solutions to the problem.
VINCENT, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
This area around my school does have a lot of biodiversity, but it’s surrounded by a bunch of urban buildings, like the hospital behind us, and I just think it needs to change.
ELLE, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
It makes you think more about what you’re doing and how you impact the world, I guess.
OGECHI, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
In the valley it’s very hot, so if we know more how to prevent it from getting hotter, we can help it get cooler.
LEAHNNA, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
I learned how biodiversity could affect people’s mental health and how it improves students, especially in learning and academics and attendance.
APRIL, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
It really makes us care more about the environment and want us to improve it more and more when we’re around it.
JUDY KERBER, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
I think as humans and as young people, there’s a real danger to being so self-centered in the way of not perceiving that interconnection of everything and having the understanding of a reciprocity. The connection is if I take care of this and I actually want more of this to be available to not only myself, the questions and the curriculum are really about what about everyone’s access in Los Angeles to nature essentially.
RODRIGO, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
I hope people can also do the same thing we’re doing, and I hope they could do it outside of school or in school as well to help biodiversity here in LA County. It makes me feel kind of proud because with all of the refineries and all of these other things we have going around, it affects us, but it felt kind of good doing that, just not for a grade, not for anything, just for… I wanted to do that on my own and I actually wanted to help. So it felt pretty good doing that.
KAREN DE LEON, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
I think that the structure of the unit leveled out the playing field for a lot of these kids. Everything was accessible to them, which is great, and it’s related to them because it’s in their city. That’s very different than when they read a textbook that has words that they don’t understand that’s not at their level, let alone near them. So just bringing that all together made it super accessible for everybody, and I think that that’s why it’s been a success. The more that they’re aware that they do have power and can make change, I think that we have a better chance at making an impact.
BRIAN LEARN, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
By the end of this unit, they felt more empowered to make a change in their community, and I think they saw the connection between skills of learning in school and an actual application in real life.
HEAVEN, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
It made me want to focus more on being outside in nature and protecting because I saw how there was a lot of wildlife that used to have big population, and it was dwindled down because of people. So that made me think more about the wildlife that we have and be more cautious about what I do.
TRAVIS LONGCORE, UCLA INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
This provides an opportunity to not just investigate and understand it and document it, but the beauty here is you can change it.
MAS DOJIRI, LOS ANGELES SANITATION & ENVIRONMENT
If we can get a significant number of kids to be environmental stewards, to be aware of environmental science, even if they go into a different field, but they’re aware of environmental science, what they do in their everyday lives and their professional lives and how it affects the environment, then we will have made quite a bit of progress.