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Gulf of Mexico Foundation
Science & Spanish Club Network
One of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's most innovative
programs is a multicultural outreach project working to
bring English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students together through science education. Established in 2000, the GMF Science &
 Spanish
Club Network (SSCN) is an extracurricular multicultural approach to coastal environmental education.
Directed by Project Coordinator Richard Gonzales of the Gulf of Mexico
Foundation, the multicultural science club project is funded
through grants from the Texas General Land Office, the EPA,
NOAA and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation.
The program strives to develop youth leadership through teaching stewardship of the Gulf of Mexico
and the greater Gulf Stream ecosystem. The network stretches along the
gulf coast, with 13 sites along the Texas gulf coast, 2 along the Mexico gulf
coast and one in Puerto Rico. Participating clubs include public
school districts, Boys & Girls Clubs and private schools (see
list of club locations at right). About 7,500 students have
participated in
the program since the year 2000.
The GMF SSCN works to establish people-to-people
relations
between the U.S. and Mexico to address environmental
concerns. Club meetings are held in both English and Spanish
to not only help English-speaking students learn Spanish but
to give students whose primary language is Spanish a chance
to learn in their native tongue. Together, the students learn
language and science skills through participating in
environmentally oriented educational projects focused on the
Gulf of Mexico and the watersheds that empty into it. Activities
include dragging seine nets through bay waters to learn
firsthand what lives beneath the surface, kayaking through
wetlands to monitor animal and plant life, cleaning up trash along coastal areas, and attending events such as Earth Day.
 The GMF Science & Spanish Club's goal is to develop a cadre of
young students who are knowledgeable about coastal society,
both as observers and residents. In addition, it strives to
teach students the importance of building long-distance,
long-term relationships.
The project’s long-term plan is to connect the middle school
network currently in place to middle
schools in the other gulf states (Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida). Plans also include establishing
counterpart connections along the gulf states of Mexico:
Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Campeche, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and
Yucatan.
The GMF's SSCN was originally designed as a coastal
environmental education program for middle school students
but, since it now has "alumni" who have moved on to high
school, the program has begun to reach out at the high school
level as well, starting with Aransas Pass High School in
Texas.
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Science & Spanish Club News
 May 2009 - SSCN connects employers with homegrown talent
April 2009 - Walmart donates $1,000 to GMF's SSCN
Feb 2009 - Trash Parade held in conjunction with Adopt-A-Beach
Feb 2009 - Club participates in Crab Trap Removal program
Dec 2008 - Texas Parks & Wildlife makes $5,000 donation
Dec 2008 - Clubs visit Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Nov 2008 - Grant assigns SSCN six tasks to complete
Nov 2008 - Port Isabel club teams up with Artist Boat in event
Older articles
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SSCN connects employers with homegrown talent
Elizabeth Roberts from San Patricio Economic Development discusses
job opportunities during the Living and Working in the Coastal Zone
job fair held May 20 in Aransas Pass with SSCN members.
May 2009 - As part of a coastal workforce
initiative developed by the GMF's Science & Spanish Club Network called “Living and Working in the Coastal Zone,” two job fairs
were held in May to help connect local talent with local employers. The effort
is a collaboration with the Texas Transportation Institute, a part of the Texas A&M University system that encourages
development of homegrown talent. On May 20 more than 470 students circulated in the high school gymnasium in Aransas Pass, Texas,
in a “Living & Working in the Coastal Zone” job fair with area employers who are hiring workers now or who will be in the near future.
The following day, more than 450 parents and students in Edna, Texas, attended a second “Living & Working
in the Coastal Zone” fair in the school gymnasium. Other similar events are planned for the Texas cities of Port
Isabel on October 6 and in Port Lavaca in late October. All the events are sponsored in part by a grant from the Texas General Land Office
Coastal Management Program Grant Cycle 13 and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental Education Network. |
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Aransas Pass Walmart donates $1,000 to GMF's Science & Spanish Club Network
April 2009 -
 Walmart in Aransas Pass, Texas, made a $1,000 Community Grants contribution in April to the Gulf of Mexico Foundation’s
Science & Spanish Club Network for their Redfish Bay public education and outreach efforts.
Science & Spanish Clubs in Ingleside, Sinton, Aransas Pass and Corpus Christi
are involved in numerous activities around Redfish Bay, a critical habitat and State Scientific Study area with its vast sea grass pastures.
The GMF greatly appreciates Aransas Pass Walmart’s contribution in support of this effort.
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Fourth Annual Redfish Bay Trash Parade held in conjunction with Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup on Feb 21
SSCN members from several schools participate in the Fourth
Annual Trash Parade held in Aransas Pass, Texas, on Feb 21.
After marching in the parade, the students participated in
the statewide Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup.
February 21, 2009 - About 100
SSCN students gathered in Aransas Pass to march through town
carrying signs and dragging strings of aluminum cans behind
them in the 4th Annual Redfish Bay Trash Parade and Coastal
Cleanup on February 21. “This parade gives the residents of
Aransas Pass and the entire Live Oak Peninsula an
opportunity to learn why trash management is so important to
a healthy state of our water bodies as well as to our
communities on land,” said
Richard Gonzales, GMF project
leader for the SSCN. “Since 2003, SSCN students have been
working on several coastal conservation projects in Redfish
Bay and the Trash Parade is one way to broaden the
environmental education outreach effort to include more
residents and organizations,” he added.
After the parade, the students joined other volunteers
in two different Winter Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups. On the same
day, Texas Parks & Wildlife conducted a Crab Trap Removal at Conn Brown Harbor. The Redfish Bay Trash Parade is sponsored
by the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Texas General Land Office, Coastal Management
Program Grant Cycle 13, the City of Aransas Pass,
Coastal Bend Bays Foundation, Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries
Program and OxyChem.
VIEW PHOTOS |
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Club participates in Crab Trap Removal program
Art Morris with Texas Parks & Wildlife talks to SSCN
students about derelict crab traps and the hazards they can
produce for the marine environment.
February 21, 2009 - Corpus Christi Martin Middle School Science &
Spanish Club students received hands-on crab trap removal
experience
 from Art Morris with Texas Parks & Wildlife
Department (TPWD) during the annual Texas Crab Trap Removal
program. Volunteers and TPWD staff collect crab traps during
a 10-day period (February 20 to March 1) when all crabbing
is prohibited so that derelict traps can be removed from
Texas bays. Besides being unsightly, derelict crab traps are
a potential danger to wildlife that can get trapped in them
as well as to boaters who may hit them and damage props or
other parts of their vessel. |
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Texas Parks & Wildlife donates $5,000 to SSCN
Dr. Larry McKinney (yellow
shirt) visits with Aransas Pass SSCN students at the
Everything Kayak Expo on Oct 25.
December 2008 - For their efforts in
helping to raise consciousness about the body of water near
their home town called Redfish Bay, Aransas Pass SSCN
students attracted the attention of Dr. Larry McKinney, former
director of Texas
Parks & Wildlife. After meeting the students
“Everything Kayak” Expo in Aransas Pass in October, McKinney arranged for the
Texas Parks & Wildlife
Foundation to make a $5,000 contribution to the GMF for
projects that the SSCN is doing in the Redfish Bay State Scientific Study Area.
To help educate the public about Redfish Bay,
the SSCN ran a Sea Grass Dice Game and Redfish Bay Outreach
booth at the October kayaking event. Club members also
participate in clean-ups of the area and were instrumental
in designating State Highway 361 as "Redfish Bay Causeway,"
a well-traveled road for kayakers, fishermen, birder
watchers, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts. |
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Clubs visit Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Tonya Stinson, ANWR environmental educator, poses with SSCN students
who helped clear brush in a picnic area at the refuge on Dec 15.
December 2008 - The GMF's SSCN
students from Aransas Pass High School and AC Blunt Middle
School helped officials at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
(ANWR) to celebrate the refuge's 71st birthday by presenting a
birthday cake to refuge staff during a science field trip on
December 15. About 22 students climbed the refuge
observation tower while braving the cold to search for
endangered Whooping Cranes who winter at the Refuge. In
addition, students cleared a picnic area of large and small
limbs under the guidance of Tonya Stinson, ANWR
environmental educator. On the way back, the students toured the new Rockport Aquarium, Cove
Harbor, Conn Brown Harbor and other waterfront developments
along Redfish Bay. The clubs will make
the birthday cake presentation an annual event to help raise
public awareness about the refuge
and its migratory birds. |
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Grant assigns SSCN six tasks to complete
November 2008 - The GMF's SSCN was
awarded the
Texas General Land Office's Coastal Management Program
 (CMP)
grant this fall again for the second year. Using the $99,900 provided by the
grant, Science & Spanish Clubs will be conducting water
sampling, holding video conferencing events, expanding
outreach events, promoting "Living and Working in the
Coastal Zone" and exploring waterfront development issues in
Redfish Bay. SSCN faculty sponsors will be involved with
developing in-house coastal environmental education
materials by attending a three-day faculty workshop in June
2009. The CMP grant has tasked the SSCN students and faculty sponsors to focus on the
following six tasks:
- Conduct coastal water quality monitoring project at Bahia Grande/Little Laguna Madre in Cameron County
- Organize and participate in Ecology=Economy Weeks
- Establish Coastal Expos and Earth Day Bay Day events in outdoor recreation rural coastal communities
- Participate in summer faculty sponsor training and
create an integrated approach to coastal environmental issues education
- Conduct Redfish Bay ecotourism and waterfront development
visitors survey and develop signs for Redfish Bay Causeway
- Use distance learning as a tool for connecting Texas
Gulf to Gulf, Gulf to Caribbean, and Gulf to upper 31 states
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Port Isabel club teams up with Artist Boat in event
Nicole Eckstrom, left, of Artist Boat meets Port Isabel Mayor Joe Vega,
right, and City Commissioner Guillermo Torres at the SSCN Bahia Grande Outreach booth at the Port Isabel World Shrimp Cook-Off on Nov 2.
November 2008 - GMF SSCN members from Port Isabel, Texas, teamed up with Artist Boat from Galveston to
collaborate on a mini Coastal Expo at Port Isabel's World Shrimp Cook-off on Nov 2. Artist Boat is a GMF Community-based Restoration
Program grant recipient based in Galveston but due to damage to its
headquarters from Hurricane Ike the restoration project has
been transferred to South Padre Island. Project leader
Nicole Eckstrom is a native of Port Isabel and
will be organizing a sand dune restoration project on South Padre Island on Nov. 15. During
the Coastal Expo event, she gathered more than 30 local
volunteer participants for the dune restoration project.
Also in South Padre, the GMF received a $4,000 grant from
the City of Port Isabel Economic Development Commission to
conduct the Annual Bahia Grande Limpienato Parade and
Coastal Cleanup the first Saturday in April 2009. |
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Older articles |
Gulf of Mexico Foundation - PMB 51, 5403 Everhart - Corpus Christi, TX 78411
(800) 884-4175 toll free - (361) 882-3939 phone - (361) 882-1262 fax
e-mail: info@gulfmex.org
website: gulfmex.org
webmaster: Carrie Robertson |
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CLUB LOCATIONS
TEXAS COASTAL BEND
Aransas Pass
· Aransas Pass High (pdf)
Bay City
Corpus Christi
· Martin Middle School (pdf)
Edna
· Austin Elementary (pdf)
El Campo
· Boys & Girls Club (pdf)
El Maton
· Tidehaven Intermediate (pdf)
· Tidehaven High School (pdf)
Ingleside
· Taylor Junior High (pdf)
Palacios
· Boys & Girls Club (pdf)
Port Lavaca
· Travis Middle School (pdf)
Sinton
· Smith Junior High (pdf)
Van Vleck
· Van Vleck High (pdf)
SOUTH TEXAS COAST
Brownsville
· Juliette Garcia Middle (pdf)
Port Isabel
· Port Isabel Middle School (pdf)
MEXICO
Matamoros
Tampico
PUERTO RICO
Penuelas
· Rivera Middle School (pdf)
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SSCN AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2008 - Texas General Land Office Coastal Management Program Grant Cycle 13 recipient
2008 - The Conservation Fund National Forum on Children and Nature Top 30 Programs in America recipient
2007 - Coastal Impact Assistance Program Grant Cycle 2 recipient
2007 - Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Environmental Excellence Award Winner-Youth Category
2007 - Gulf of Mexico Alliance Environmental Education Committee Best Practices Demonstration Program for Underserved/Underrepresented Populations
2007 - Texas General Land Office Coastal Management Program Grant Cycle 12 recipient
2007 - Ocean Conservancy’s 1st Caribbean Ocean Summit for Youth Invited participants to represent the Gulf of Mexico
2006 - Boys & Girls Club of America National Dragonfly Quest Science Fair Competition in the Environmental Science category
2006 - Coastal Bend Bays Foundation Environmental Stewardship Award-Middle School category
2005 - Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Environmental Excellence Award Finalist-Non-Profit Organization category
2003 - Coastal Impact Assistance Program Grant Cycle 1 recipient
2001 - Corpus Christi Independent School District Innovative Idea Grant Winner-Middle School Category
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SSCN IN THE NEWS
Oct 17, 2008 - New canal aids wetlands - Victoria Advocate
April 27, 2007 - GMF SSCN helps to rename causeway 'Redfish Bay' - Corpus
Christi Caller-Times
 May 2, 2007 -
GMF SSCN accepts state's top environmental
achievement honor during ceremony in Austin, Texas.
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2009 EVENTS
Jan 20 - Ingleside SSC to Aransas National Wildlife
Refuge and Redfish Bay waterfront development tour
Feb 7 - Brownsville, Matamoros, Port Isabel SSCs at
Ocelot Festival in Harlingen with Friends of the Laguna
Atascosa Willdife Refuge
Feb 14 - Tres Palacios Watershed Stream Team (El Campo,
Palacios, Van Vleck SSCs) at Palacios Valentine’s Day
Parade
Feb 20-22 - Texas Regional Ocean Science Bowl at Texas
A&M University-Corpus Christi
Feb 21 - 4th Annual Redfish Bay Trash Parade and
Cleanup with Aransas Pass, Sinton, Ingleside and Corpus
Christi SSCs
Feb 21 - Brownsville, Matamoros, Port Isabel SSCs at
Biggest Cleanup in Texas at South Padre Island
Feb 24 - Economy = Ecology Week at Aransas Pass
April 4 - Brownsville, Matamoros, Port Isabel SSCs at 4th
Annual Bahia Grande Limpienato Parade & Cleanup in Port
Isabel
April 18 - Aransas Pass, Sinton, Ingleside and Corpus
Christi SSCs at 11th Annual Earth Day Bay Day in Corpus
Christi
April 18 - Penuelas, Puerto Rico 2nd Annual Earth Day Parade
April 25 - SSCN Coastal Expo at 2nd Annual Earth Week in Bay
City
May 2 - 5th Annual Gulf of Mexico Youth Leadership in Stewardship Conference sponsored by the Texas General Land Office
Coastal Management Program and BP America
June 14-17 -
Down Under Out Yonder near shore faculty
training |
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