Experiencing the Natural Beauty of our Border Region:
The Key to Environmental Education

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After years of planning, preparation and hard work the Environmental Education Council for the Californias (EECC) was proud to present its new bilingual Field Trip Binder and curriculum to teachers and volunteers throughout the border region. In order to introduce teachers and volunteers to the new Field Trip Binder and curriculum, the EECC organized a workshop and field trip to the Punta Banda estuary in Ensenada, Baja California on October 1, 2005 for 24 K-12 teachers from San Diego, Tijuana and Ensenada. Twenty volunteers participated as co-facilitators, and this extraordinary team was comprised of biologists, teachers and graduate students from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), as well as members of conservation groups such as Pro Peninsula, Pro Esteros, Pronatura, the Tijuana River Estuary, and a Montessori school.

At the event, teachers and volunteers broke out into teams and for the duration of the workshop they worked side by side doing the pre, onsite and post field trip activities of the curriculum and using the interpretive trail as an educational tool. At the end of the workshop the participants were tired but very happy and, according to their comments, convinced of the educational benefits offered by the binder.

For more information on the EECC and the Field Trip binders, as well as to request a copy of the binder, please contact Kama Dean, Bi-national Coordinator of the EECC, at kama@propeninsula.org. Many thanks go out to everyone who made this project possible including Araceli Fernandez, Miguel Angel Vargas, Karen Levy-Szpiro, Sony, ICF, NWF, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, the EECC Steering Committee and all of our volunteers.