Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Environmentally Conscious: Samantha Smith, left, Shane Carroll, and Vivian Liu hold up red wriggler worms used to help in the decomposition process of newspapers and food waste in a compost bin at the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens.
New Water Wizards program teaches children about pollution
A new ecosystem is alive for children who study Guadalupe River
By Kate Carter
School may be out, but the learning is just beginning at San Jose's Guadalupe River Park and Gardens. The park last month began its first-ever Water Wizards program to teach children about the Guadalupe River watershed, much of which runs right through Willow Glen.
"The program is trying to make them aware of all the stuff available to them in the natural world," program director Kary Wilson says. "They're not learning about water the whole two days, but it all links back to the river."
The two-day, eight-hour program is for youth between 7 and 11 years old. Wilson and four teachers, three of whom are credentialed, teach no more than 30 students at a time. The program's curriculum was developed by park staff and includes sections about the river's ecosystem, history and problems like pollution.
"The children need to be exposed to this because our water is really precious," Wilson says. "Water is one of the basic needs of life and we can't create any more of it."
Students learn about what the watershed is and study the plants and animals that make it work. They take a river walk to collect seeds and leaves, learning to identify species with binoculars and a field guide.
The students learn about the anatomy of worms and how they help recycle organic matter into fertilizer. They learn about the salmon and steelhead trout that return to the river to spawn.
The children also learn about archaeology and how the Guadalupe River has been used over the past hundreds of years. They get to try for themselves the careful, methodical process of an archaeological dig and view artifacts that help people understand the river's past.
They learn about the Ohlone villages of Native Americans that existed along the river. They learn about the original Spanish pueblo of San Jose, built in 1777 near what is now downtown San Jose, and that it is the oldest continuously inhabited civilian community in California.
The students learn of the recent discovery of a Chinese woolen mill that existed on river in the late 1800s and early 1900s near what is now Chinatown. They also learn about the watershed's more recent history as orchard land and explore the park's living examples of both business and family orchards.
Discussion of the river's history leads into a discussion of the river's pollution, which has been going on since humans lived near it.
"We're not the only ones who lived along the Guadalupe, or the only ones who pollute it," Wilson says. "It's been different types, but it's all pollution."
The woolen mill would have sent detergent into the river, the canneries dumped their waste into it and nearby farms eroded it, she says.
The children experience the challenge of cleaning up more modern types of water pollution. They conduct an experiment, trying to remove an "oil spill"--vegetable oil poured in a bowl of water.
The children are kept very busy with all the activities, she says, but they receive two snack breaks each day and bring numerous materials home.
"It's quite a jam-packed two days of information," Wilson says. "The kids are constantly on the move."
The class runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a consecutive Tuesday and Thursday. Sessions into August are still open and cost $60 per child.
Last year the city's Environmental Services Department gave the park $5,000 to develop a pilot program given to children with the YMCA and the Girl Scouts. A $25,000 grant from Applied Materials and an $18,000 grant from the Yahoo! Employee Foundation will keep the program running for the next two years, after which staff expect it to maintain itself. The grant money covers materials and staffing for Water Wizards as well as adult education programs also being developed, she says.
Wilson says many of the youngsters in the program come knowing something about nature and science, but others "may have never walked to the river."
"It's cool how they connect it all," Wilson says. "By the second day they're all talking about what they learned, and they can come back and show their parents what they learned."
Wilson says the program helps give local children knowledge about their local environment so they can better enjoy it and care for it.
"I think it's really important that children learn about the importance of water at a young age, just to have the appreciation that nature is awesome," she says. "There is a whole watershed, not just this stream. There's a sense of wonder to it."
For more information call Wilson, 408.298.7657, or visit www.grpg.org.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
