The Santa Monica High School students participating in the WLA/ Malibu Chapter's Teach and Test program are featured in an online video produced by the Green Observers Foundation. This video showcases their water testing program. The students do a great job of taking the viewer through collecting water at the beach, processing samples in the lab, and reading their results. They also discuss some of their local pollution issues and how residents can make a difference. This video is a must see for any Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) programs that are based in schools or to show new volunteers.
Good job Santa Monica! Thank you Green Observers Foundation for producing this fantastic new resource.
2010 Teach & Test Program
Slideshow from 2010 Kick-off Meeting on September 27, 2009
2010 Teach and Test Program Officially Begins!
The South Bay Chapter's Teach and Test Program got off to a great start last Sunday, September 27, 2009, with it's kick-off meeting held at SEALab in Redondo Beach, CA. Much hard work has been put into setting up an even stronger program this year, and the Chapter looks forward to a significantly strengthened program and much broader public exposure from the water sampling lab statistics produced by our environmentally sophisticated high school participants. But we could use your help! If you are a responsible adult (age 18+) who would like to make a real contribution to the community by providing guidance and by serving as mentors to the Teach and Test program students, please read on for details about our program and how you can get involved to make a difference.
About the Teach and Test Program
The South Bay Chapter's Teach and Test program coordinates four local high schools—Westchester, El Segundo, South High, and Redondo Union—to improve water quality monitoring in the South Bay area. Water samples are taken every two weeks (holidays excluded) from 13 South Bay beaches, then analyzed in a lab to determine bacteria levels which will be published to the public by the students. Through participation in the Teach and Test program, students will gain "real world" science experience, while our volunteers develop valuable skills in making tangible contributions to their community—the hallmarks of a true Surfrider Foundation grassroots effort.
Natural Reslources Defense Council's (NRDC) July 2009 report titled "Testing the Waters" (http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/ttw/ttw2009.pdf) found that record beach closures due to water pollution remain a major problem. Now more important than ever, Surfrider's Teach and Test program provides the means to monitor and bring public awareness to bacteria levels in our own backyard - our local beaches!
Adult Volunteer Supervisors Are Needed Now
To build on the strengths of last year's program, we are seeking adult volunteers for Teach and Test sampling days (beginning Sunday, October 4, 2009, through April 2010). If you are a responsible adult (age 18+) who would like to make a real contribution to the community by providing guidance and by serving as mentors to the Teach and Test program students, we would like to talk to you. Contact us today and find out how you can make a difference that matters.
For additional information about the Teach and Test Program or to volunteer, please contact Tiffany Murphy via email at: TiffMurphy@gmail.com.
2009 Teach & Test Program
South High School's Group Video Project... Click it!
About Teach & Test:
October 10, 2004 was the official launch date of the South Bay Chapter's "Teach and Test Program." This is an exciting new initiative to coordinate with local high schools and improve water quality monitoring in the South Bay area. We have organized several high schools to sample local beaches for their science courses. The Chapter will then have the water samples analyzed and publish the results in an on-going database. We're also contributing to a study of plastics accumulation in our beach sand.
The students will gain some "real world" science experience and make a hands-on contribution to their community - the hallmarks of a grassroots Surfrider Foundation effort.
We're excited to announce that the start-up fundraising effort was a great success and we were able to get laboratory space and assistance from Professor John Dorsey at Loyola-Marymount Unviersity. Our first year monitoring teams are students from Chadwick, Redondo Beach, South and El Segundo High Schools and we have begun taking samples from 9 locations between Ballona Creek and Torrance Beach.
This is where YOU can help out. We need a few volunteers to coordinate the sampling exercises. This is an easy, but important, opportunity to contribute to the Chapter's mission and make a difference in some students' lives. If you can spare a few hours once a month, please email teach-test@surfrider-southbay.org
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. The South Bay Chapter territory includes the California coastline between Cabrillo Beach and Marina del Rey.
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