Blog 5

Projects in Environmental Education has been such an eye opening during my last year at CSUMB. It was interesting to know that we were the first class to actually tackle this project and hopefully improve the course for future courses. Working at Los Arboles Middle School along side with Ms. Haws was such a fun experience. Involving students with hands-on work like this has always been worrisome, however they proved to be otherwise. It was great seeing something that was broken and fix it with the students. The middle school students showed to be interested in the projects that they were assigned to and were proud to shown everyone their accomplishments.

Vermicompost group from left to right: Andrea (myself), Kianni, Talia, Jack, and Cece

What I can see as an improvement of this course would be the timing of when we picked our projects. We picked our project later in the semester, losing that extra time to physically work. There was a couple of groups that did not have enough time to complete their projects.

This course has taught me about time management and planning skills. I was very excited to help direct the creating of not one but two vermicompost bins. This was a great learning experience because everything that we planned did not go as expected and we had to learn how to roll with the punches. What I would do differently is invest in power tools or seek out someone that has more tools to be able to get the job done faster.

Through the span of this semester, the middle school students gained so much information as well as ourselves. We provided the students with a worksheet to complete over their spring break, and although not all of them completed it they showed knowledge.

This has been the most insightful and exciting course I have taken at CSUMB.

Blog 4

After completing our second session at Los Arboles Middle School, we have faced various challenges and successes. We have learned that not everything goes as planned and that sometimes we have to steer away from the plan, multiple times. Our first challenge was getting the drill to work. No one in the group had experience with power tools, therefore when we tried to use one, we were unsuccessful. We did not let that stop us, so we resorted to the old school way and used a hammer.

As we continued building the bins for the vermicompost, we tried to be as sustainable as possible. We used items that were already available at home or at the school. The students participated by bringing their own compost to feed the worms. Although we faced many setbacks through out the project, we also learned how to combat these issues. As we face issues, we learn to troubleshoot and build a stronger connection while we do so.

Blog Three

After my first two weeks at LAMS I thrilled of everyone's contribution on making everything run smoothly. Personally, I was able to contribute to the development of the food web game as well as the recap of the scavenger hunt. The real challenge was getting the students engaged. It was somewhat difficult getting the students engaged for the scavenger hunt being that we were a small group. Our team was smaller compared to the rest of the groups but that was important because we were able to have one on one conversation. What was I noticed on the scavenger hunt was that most of the green spaces were either trashed or locked.

For this course, I have realized that being prepared for the unexpected and having leadership skills are very important. It is a challenge when we have very little time to prepare for each day at LAMS, therefore we must also learn to be spontaneous. My goal for this class is to work on a project that will last for a long time. I am hoping that we will stir more excitement with my current project and make it so that the entire school can use it, not just the environmental class for LAMS.