At a recent CRC board meeting Ocosta school teacher Victor Garcia reported on a highly successful school program sponsored by FOGH and the Chehalis River Council.
S.W.I.S.H. stands for Students, Watershed, Invertebrates and Habitats. In the last weeks of school, students in the CORE program at Ocosta Junior High School studied wetlands and the connections between animals and plants that five in and around them with clean water. The unit was built around a series of day camps held at Grays Harbor College and the Lake Swano interpretive trail.
The students from Ocosta and ninth graders from Aberdeen High School were treated to a series of mini courses that included water quality testing, identifying riparian plants, drawing the stream invertebrates found in Alder Creek, observing salmon and clipping the fins of hatchery salmon about to be released.
The unit culminated with the play "The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy," presented by the Seattle Public Theater to audiences at Ocosta, Miller Junior High and Aberdeen High School
The idea was spearheaded by local clean water advocate and FOGH and CRC board member Brady Engvall, teachers Victor Garcia of Ocosta Schools and Greg Brooks of Miller Junior High, and Hannah Merrill, model watershed coordinator at Grays Harbor College.
Funds for the project came from part of a settlement that FOGH negotiated with the City of Aberdeen to develop a clean water education program involving the Estuary.
S.W.I.S.H. is regarded as a pilot project, and the project organizers hope to bring the curriculum and approach to other schools in the Chehalis Basin.
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council