TRAVIS LONGCORE, UCLA INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
California has a unique climate that’s different from the surrounding area. We have a lot of species that are unique to us and adaptations to our particular climate, and that is really the focus here.
EDITH DE GUZMAN, UC DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES, UCLA LUSKIN CENTER FOR INNOVATION
We will provide teachers with practical tools that will engage students in really compelling and interactive ways where the students will feel supported in exploring the topics, but also, more importantly for me, they’ll feel empowered to actually provide some solutions and be part of the solutions to this increasingly scary problem of we’re living on a hotter planet and we don’t really know what’s on the other side yet.
FELIX, 6TH GRADE STUDENT
We’re in Woodland Hills Academy Humanities Magnet, which is in Los Angeles. So we worked on something called Urban Heat Islands and how urban heat islands collected a lot of heat compared to rural areas.
RAELYN, 7TH GRADE STUDENT
We were able to see where trees could go in order to help reduce our heat. And when living in an urban heat island, you wouldn’t find as much biodiversity. You’d probably just find an oak tree every once in a while, maybe a bush. I very much was able to think like a scientist. I was able to theorize. I was able to learn and observe.
FELIX, 6TH GRADE STUDENT
I saw myself as a scientist. I can see myself becoming a scientist and helping people wanting to become a scientist also.
RODRIGO, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
We studied on what we can do to get more biodiversity, so we made planners and we ended up making food troughs and also nests so native birds could come.
APRIL, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
We have studied and found that when there is more increased by diversity, the mental health of people were healthier.
JAZZLYN, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
We were scientists because we were conducting research, developing a design to be implemented in the school’s garden, and finalizing that.
AARON, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
I definitely felt like a scientist because I was able to actually go to our other areas in the school and look at all the plans for biodiversity and study it instead of just looking at textbook.
BRIAN LEARN, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
The ECUITY Project, the purpose of the project is to engage more students in environmental awareness and applying knowledge on biodiversity and environmental concepts into their communities.
GRAHAM MONTGOMERY, UCLA BIOLOGY & EVOLUTONARY CENTER
Science is fun. It’s fun to be a scientist. We get to go out, and as a biologist I get to go out and look at plants and animals and figure out why they are in certain places, but not others. It’s just fun. Everybody has a story.
MAKAI, 6TH GRADE STUDENT
It made me really see the school in a different way for the better, and I really saw myself liking ants more.
AARON, 8TH GRADE STUDENT
For every other science class it’s always just been in the classroom, while with this one we’ve actually gone outside and researched up close. I think it’s helped people realize how important biodiversity is.
JUDY KERBER, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Being outside and observing nature, there is this immediate connection that they can’t deny, and that being outside makes just them feel better and they crave to be outside. And then taking a little bit of a more slow and deeper consideration of why that is I think is really wonderful to this curriculum.
I definitely have learned more about how science can be taught. That accessibility piece is super important and the relevance, you have to have both of those things together for these kids to really take it and run with it and have that buy-in.
BRIAN LEARN, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
When they leave school, the learning never ends. They’re inspired to investigate things happening in their home or in their community and bringing that sense of curiosity and constant desire for discovery into their adult life.
TRAVIS LONGCORE, UCLA INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
All students have access to this approach, lets them achieve to their potential and be able to have exposure to doing science, maybe perhaps seeing themselves as a scientist. And so it is the great leveler, in that sense, for people and communities who have been systematically disinvested in.