The project brings together Arizona State University's Center for Environmental Studies and School of Planning and Landscape Architecture with Logan Simpson Design, Inc., a private landscape design firm, to offer six schools in the Phoenix metropolitan area a program which facilitates the creation of native habitat areas on school campuses and their use as outdoor learning laboratories. The project provides for a consortium of the County Office of Education, East Bay Regional parks, and the Taylor Foundation to develop and run a residential environmental education program for students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. During the summer, the Taylor Foundation offers a similar program for terminally ill children and their families. The project utilizes environmental education as a catalyst to engender student improvement in the basic core subjects at palomares Elementary School. The project is supported by a partnership of Alameda County agencies, University of California Cooperative Extension, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Participants gain job skills and become spokespersons for the environment in their community.
Specific benefits to the 36 teen participants include occupational specific skills in horticulture, program organization, and public presentation. The project provides a summer workshop for 16 teachers and 6 volunteer docents. The workshop focuses on building skills for teaching basic principles in trying to balance ecological needs in face of rapid urban development. In each of the series the first day is devoted to building knowledge of principles that interplay with land use choices, while the second day focuses on developing teaching skills for these topics. The project proposes to introduce 40 students and their teachers at Loconoma High School to water quality issues as they actively monitor the biological, chemical, and physical differences of sections of St. Helena Creek which passes through their community.