Find more about the goals and timeline for development to provide context for the Caring for Clear Lake project.
The Caring for Clear Lake project is led by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science and Center for Regional Change, approved by the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake (BRC). This project supports the goals of the BRC toward revitalizing the lake and its surrounding communities. The BRC recognizes that the health of Clear Lake is intertwined with the health of the people who rely on it. Youth and other residents have the knowledge, skills, and values needed to become effective stewards of Clear Lake and succeed in related education and career pathways. Existing programs run by organizations throughout the region provide opportunities for youth stewardship. The BRC expressed a desire for the development of educational materials to support these ongoing programs and be accessible for non-formal educators lake-wide.
These materials support the goals of the BRC toward revitalizing the lake and its surrounding communities by:
Building a stewardship ethic among youth by engaging them in real science projects taking place in the Clear Lake region.
Promoting existing programs that actively engage learners in hands-on scientific discovery and provide pathways to academic and professional achievement.
Actively partnering with area Tribal governments and residents in the development and implementation of materials in ways that respect traditional ecological knowledge and current culturally-relevant approaches to caring for the lake and its communities.
Ensuring that Clear Lake non-formal educators have the curriculum and training needed to be effective in utilizing the newly created educational materials.
Sharing our resource findings and EE materials in a variety of easily accessible formats.
Orienting all activities around building local capacity for long-term sustainability.
The project team worked with key local partners (including Tribal nations and government agencies, non-profit organizations, educators, and others) to identify existing environmental educational (EE) and participatory science resources and programs in the region. This includes projects and programs of Tribal Nations, community-based organizations, and other local government departments. An initial web scan created an inventory of the publicly available information on environmental educators, projects, programs, and curriculum from community-based organizations. The project team then met with individuals to discuss their personal and organizational perspectives on environmental education in the region.
The conversations and information from the web scan provided an initial understanding of the region’s strengths, challenges, and environmental concerns. The project’s initial findings (documented here) provide background on the region’s unique natural and cultural history, and current environmental issues and solutions. In addition to the local resources (archived here) and conversations with over 50 Tribal and community members (listed here), the project team learned about the region’s needs and priorities during local organizational and public meetings, outreach events, and presentations. This process supported the BRC’s goal for the project to integrate the region’s existing projects, programs, and curriculum.
An initial draft of the project’s EE materials was shared with a Tribal Environmental Education Advisory Committee (TEEAC). Members of all seven Tribes within the Clear Lake region were invited to receive compensation to participate in a series of three meetings in fall 2023 to review and provide feedback on the initial draft. This feedback is integral in ensuring that the materials are culturally relevant, accessible, accurate, and address Tribal priorities for EE in the region. The BRC and the UC Davis team strongly place Tribal support as integral to the success of this project, and the TEEAC was one of multiple places Tribes have generously informed this project. The initial draft was also shared with Tribal and community members who spoke with the project team in year one.
Changes from the TEEAC meetings and invited individuals’ feedback were incorporated into a second draft of the materials. The second draft of the materials was then organized onto a Google site, used during a training for interested educators in the region. Outreach to the project’s contact list, with additional help from others, resulted in an attendance of 17 educators representing non-profit organizations, schools, and agencies, who were offered compensation for their time. Some participants of the March educator training agreed to receive additional compensation for their time piloting the materials in their educational setting and providing feedback through an evaluation survey. The final draft of the materials addressed the feedback from the educators who participated in the training and piloting. This process ensured that the project’s materials were not only relevant to the programming for educators, but also broadly easy to use and adapt to a variety of educational settings.
A discussion at the BRC’s Socio-Economic Subcommittee April 2024 meeting provided guidance for long term community ownership and maintenance of the project’s materials. A fourth TEEAC meeting held in June 2024 determined the responsibilities for maintaining this project’s materials, desired next steps within the community, and a partnership for housing the materials with Lake County Office of Education. This ensured that this project’s product is owned by the community, has dedicated oversight on keeping materials up-to-date, and can have local leadership expand upon it in the future if desired.