An important step in protecting and restoring fishable, swimmable, drinkable water is making sure we have informed and passionate leaders in the next generation to which we can hand off our mission. Since we’ve started environmental education outreach programs like Project SWELL, we haven’t had a shortage of hope for the future of San Diego’s water. We continue to be inspired by our future leaders’ passion for water. This is one of our favorite stories. 

At Coronado Middle School, a teacher challenged her eighth grade students to choose their own topic for a research project about what human impacts are detrimental to our environment. This class, aptly named themselves the Ocean Enthusiasts, really wanted to focus on keeping the ocean they love clean. The students came up with an abundance of topics including the impacts of plastic bags, sewage waste, the current drought and marine pollution. At the close of their research, each created a video, poster or other illustration that showed the most important lessons they learned from this project. 

These students, after working on these projects, take away not only the information on how harmful our effect on the environment can be, but also the drive to do something about it. They reached out to San Diego Coastkeeper to see if we could use what they worked so hard on to educate others. This class and the teacher, Mrs. Landry, can now act as an example to other students and teachers. This is a great way to get students involved and excited about the environment and water quality. Both are intertwined and it is necessary to impose the importance of both of them to the younger generations.

Ben
Plastic Bag Enthusiast

Sophia
San Diego Drought Enthusiast