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PROGRAMS > EDUCATION > SCIENCE & SPANISH CLUB > SSC ARCHIVES

Gulf of Mexico Foundation
Science & Spanish Club Network

Video about GMF's Science & Spanish Network's 2009 Gulf Guardian Award
To watch video, click on image above or watch it on YouTube

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 photo 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 Science & 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 photo 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.

Science & Spanish Club News

    Nov 2009 - Students conduct bayfront clean up, meet mayor
    Nov 2009 - Club runs recycle booth at Shrimp Cook-Off
    Oct 2009 - SSCN recieves 2009 Gulf Guardian Awards
    Oct 2009 - SSCN focuses on beach clean ups in October
    Sept 2009 - Clubs help with GLO state-wide beach clean up
    Sept 2009 - Port Lavaca raises funds for whooping crane
    Older articles

Students conduct bayfront clean up, meet mayor

Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame talks to SSCN members while they prepare to clean up the Bayfront Seawall on November 7. On his morning walk, the Mayor stopped to express his support.
November 2009 - During his morning walk on November 7, Mayor Joe Adame was surprised to encounter GMF SSCN students preparing to clean up the Bayfront Seawall in downtown Corpus Christi, Texas. He expressed his support of the students' efforts and that of their cleanup partner, BMX for Corpus Christi. The BMX bikers scraped gum from the sidewalks and scrubbed and power-washed the painted parts of the seawall that attract bikers and their tire marks. SSCN students from Cunningham Middle School conducted a beach cleanup on nearby Magee Beach, removing trash from the beach and clothing and blankets from the walkway leading to the rocky breakwater that protects the marina.

Club runs recycle booth at Shrimp Cook-Off
November 2009 - The Port Isabel-South Padre Island SSCN ran a "Pledge To Recycle" outreach booth at the annual World Shrimp Cook-Off sponsored by the Port Isabel Chamber of Commerce on November 1. The City of Port Isabel opened its first recycling collection center on November 14 and is in collaboration with the local school district to encourage community-wide recycling.

SSCN recieves 2009 Gulf Guardian Awards

GMF Project Leader Richard Gonzales (in white) and Principal Ludivina Rendon Lozano (in purple) accept a first-place Gulf Guardian Award in the Bi-national category during a ceremony in October.
October 2009 - The Gulf of Mexico Foundation (GMF) hosted the reception for the 2009 Gulf Guardian Awards ceremony held in Biloxi, Mississippi, on October 29. The GMF was honored to win two first place awards this year, including one in the Bi-National category for its Spanish Science Club Network educational outreach program. GMF shared the first place award with Bi-National Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano, Mexico and The National Coral Reef Institute, USA.

SSCN focuses on beach clean ups in October
October 2009 - Eighty volunteers from SSCs from the Texas towns of Corpus Christi, Sinton and Aransas Pass joined US Fish & Wildlife Service staff from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on October 17 in picking up eight tons of shoreline trash along three miles of Matagorda Island. The clean-up event helped to provide benchmark data to the ANWR to be used for planning annual cleanup events for the entire 38-mile long Gulf beach.
Also on October 17, SSC members from Van Vleck and Bay City, Texas, volunteered for the Texas Parks and Wildlife and Lower Colorado River Authority's Coastal Expo at the Annual Rice Festival held in Bay City.

Clubs help with GLO state-wide beach clean up

Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup Sept 26 - click photo to enlarge

GMF SSCN members from several Texas cities participate in the state-wide Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup held on Sept 26.
September 2009 - SSCs from the Texas cities of Port Lavaca, Bay City, Tidehaven, Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi, Ingleside and Sinton participated in the September 26 Texas General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups held at Magnolia Beach, Matagorda Beach, Corpus Christi Beach and Redfish Bay.

Port Lavaca raises funds for whooping crane
September 2009 - The Port Lavaca SSC has started an on-campus fundraising campaign for the endangered whooping crane. They are working with the Friends of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Friends of Matagorda Island to improve available food sources for the migrating flock, which lost 20 percent of its Canada-to-Texas flock last season. Port Lavaca students started raising money by holding pencil and bake sales. Students have also commenced a strategic study of the whooping crane in both its Texas home at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and its Canadian home at Wood Buffalo National Park in Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories.

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

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