NSEA and WWU Partner to Update SFS Curriculum

Annually, NSEA’s Students for Salmon (SFS) Program serves over 1,000 fourth graders throughout Whatcom County. Students and their teachers meet NSEA staff in their classrooms and along salmon-bearing creeks to become “stream scientists” and participate in a stewardship project where they leave a positive impact on their local waterway. Partnered with these components of SFS is NSEA’s Students for Salmon Curriculum.  

This suite of curriculum can be utilized by teachers in their classrooms to extend the learning beyond the NSEA-led components and bring the program full circle, leaving their students with a deeper knowledge of salmon, the threats they face in our region, and actions they can take to help salmon in their local watersheds. Recently, this curriculum was updated, thanks to a partnership through Western Washington University (WWU) with Dr. Debi Hanuscin and her pre-service teachers. Dr. Hanuscin and her students took NSEA’s existing SFS curriculum and revised it to ensure that it is locally relevant, includes Indigenous Ways of Knowing, builds in climate science, and integrates the power of youth voice.

We are excited to see how this updated curriculum can further connect students to their watersheds and salmon. NSEA and WWU recently presented at the Washington Science Teachers Association (WSTA) Conference and further broadened our impact by showcasing this curriculum to teachers and professionals from around the state. We will be hosting teacher professional development workshops over the next two school years to train teachers on utilizing this curriculum, setting them up for success and ensuring the curriculum will be used for years to come. These trainings were made possible because of funding from NOAA BWET, which will allow us to maximize this partnership with WWU and reach fourth grade teachers across Whatcom County.

The SFS curriculum wraps up with an activity where each class gets to choose a project to work on to share more broadly what they learned while participating in SFS and take action for the benefit of salmon.  This culmination of each classroom’s SFS experience further supports NSEA’s value of the importance of hope in education and how this can empower students to take action in their lives to help salmon, which are so essential to the environment, culture, and economy of our region.

 For more information about NSEA’s Education programs, please contact Nathan Zabel at nzabel@n-sea.org or call 360-715-0283.

Celebrating Salmon this Summer

By Nathan Zabel
NSEA Education Programs Manager.

This summer, NSEA welcomed back 4-6 year old campers, and our campus was once again filled with laughter and excitement. Camp Keystone celebrated its second year and saw the familiar faces of returning campers while also meeting campers and families new to NSEA. We enjoyed another summer of celebrating salmon, a keystone species so important to our region.

Camp Keystone ran for 9 weeks from June through August and featured 7 different ecological themes, all rooted in salmon education and place-based outdoor learning. “Underwater Adventure” showcased salmon and other animals that swim with them while “Whatcom Watersheds” brought campers from the top of Mt. Baker to the depths of Bellingham Bay. We started each day with a salmon circle, which included a land acknowledgment, salmon yoga, and salmon songs! Campers learned through movement and music the various stages of the lifecycle and the habitats salmon rely on for survival, while thanking our Indigenous neighbors for caring for the land since time immemorial. They left each week being able to use their hands to identify all 5 species of Pacific salmon.

Each week featured a field trip where campers visited a property located in the forest along Tenmile Creek. There, they got to look for salmon fry in the moving water of the creek, roll over logs in search of bugs, listen to the sounds of the birds, and play hide and seek among the tall trees. Camp Keystone provided young learners with a space to spark their curiosity, build important social and life skills, and foster an appreciation and connection with the natural world.

We are thrilled that almost every week of camp was full and we were able to increase accessibility to our Whatcom County community by giving out scholarships for campers to attend. We are happy to hear how meaningful Camp Keystone was for these campers and their families. One parent said, “We love Camp Keystone! I love that it is science-based, nature-focused, and about being good stewards of the land. The staff is warm and welcoming and make it such a joyful experience for kids.” Camp Keystone provided an avenue for youth to play, grow, and explore in the outdoors, while sparking a lifelong learning and compassion for the environment and salmon.

Registration for next summer will open on February 1st – look for more information at n-sea.org/camp-keystone or contact Nathan Zabel at nzabel@n-sea.org.