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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 & Richard Gonzales photoSpanish 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 relationsScience & Spanish Club 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.

Carrie Robertson photoThe 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.


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

SSCN connects employers with homegrown talent
Living & Working in the Coastal Zone job fair
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.

Aransas Pass Walmart donates $1,000 to GMF's Science & Spanish Club Network
April 2009 - Walmart 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.


Fourth Annual Redfish Bay Trash Parade held in conjunction with Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup on Feb 21
Redfish Bay Trash Parade - click to view photos
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

Club participates in Crab Trap Removal program
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 Texas Parks & Wildlifefrom 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.

Texas Parks & Wildlife donates $5,000 to SSCN
SSCN students with Dr. Larry McKinney
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 Texas Parks & Wildlifedirector 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.

Clubs visit Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
ANWR field trip - click to enlarge
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.

Grant assigns SSCN six tasks to complete
November 2008 - The GMF's SSCN was awarded the Texas General Land Office's Coastal Management Program Texas 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:
  1. Conduct coastal water quality monitoring project at Bahia Grande/Little Laguna Madre in Cameron County
  2. Organize and participate in Ecology=Economy Weeks
  3. Establish Coastal Expos and Earth Day Bay Day events in outdoor recreation rural coastal communities
  4. Participate in summer faculty sponsor training and create an integrated approach to coastal environmental issues education
  5. Conduct Redfish Bay ecotourism and waterfront development visitors survey and develop signs for Redfish Bay Causeway
  6. Use distance learning as a tool for connecting Texas Gulf to Gulf, Gulf to Caribbean, and Gulf to upper 31 states

Port Isabel club teams up with Artist Boat in event
Nicole Eckstrom of Artist Boat
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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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

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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