Teaching high school students the value of healthy rivers and how to help keep them that way just got easier! Save California Salmon, Humboldt State Native Studies and Klamath area schools are now offering curriculum resources to teachers. The Water Protection and Advocacy curriculum and teacher’s guide meets California state standards in science, social studies, health, history and language arts.
According to Save California Salmon, the effort responds to California’s urgent water, climate, and educational crises by providing educational materials that make learning about watersheds and people fun and personal for students. Better yet, the curriculum helps young people get involved in water and land management policy in a culturally appropriate manner.
“The fact is that our culture and daily lives are connected to the water and land and the subjects that we learn about in school,” explains Hoopa Valley Tribal member Danielle Rey Frank from the Hoopa Valley High School Water Protectors Club. “By connecting local issues and the environment to our education, and encouraging us to apply what we are learning to directly benefit our communities and California policy, we are not only helping to solve critical issues, we are getting students excited about learning. Something about the curriculum that excites me is it educates us on how to sustain what we have left of the sacred world of our ancestors, while teaching what can be done to help revive it.”
The curriculum is based on the Water Protection in Native California Summer Speaker Series that was developed by Save California Salmon and Humboldt State University’s Native American Studies Department. It features lessons from Native leaders that work in law, land and water management, fisheries conservation, philanthropy, art, language, food security, health, policy and youth organizing. It integrates knowledge from Native American leaders in each lesson- a perspective that is often missing in California education.
The groups will host an educator’s two part training webinar March 26 and April 2.
It’s a great way to learn more about our watersheds, the people who live there, and how to protect them for future generations.
Download the curriculum and learn more about upcoming events at Save California Salmon!