Teach and Test Mentorship Program

Pictured above: Member of the Teach and Teach and Test program Jacob Hasset takes water quality samples with students from Lincoln Middle School and SMASH by the Santa Monica Pier

Yesterday members of the Teach and Test Program at Santa Monica High School taught students from Lincoln Middle School and SMASH all about water quality testing and the importance of keeping our oceans clean. We took the students down to the beach where they each took a sample of the water and filled out a data sheet. Then they each were given the opportunity to process their sample in the laboratory and put their finished sample in the incubator. We tested their knowledge of what they learned with a game of Teach and Test Jeopardy! It was wonderful experience inspiring the youth to make a positive change in the world.


Pictured above: Members of the Teach and Test program Kou Collins and Daniel Franco teach a student from Lincoln Middle School how to process their sample in the lab.

Teach and Test Mentorship Workshop!

The first Teach and Test Mentorship Workshop is on February 20, 2010

Learn about our water quality testing process with this hands-on, fun experience!

Meet at Santa Monica High School in room S107

The workshop will start at 10AM and be over by 2PM

Sign up by emailing Benjamin Kay at bkay@smmusd.org and Devany Garcia at devany.garcia@gmail.com with the number of participants planning to come

See you there!!!

Teach And Test In The News!

The Surfrider Foundation's Teach and Test Program at Santa Monica High School is featured today in the Santa Monica Daily Press. The article is about the dangerously high levels of harmful bacteria that was found by the students during the recent rainy weather.
You Can Read The Article By Clicking On The Link Below

http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2010-01-27-68362.113116_Students_find_high_levels_of_bacteria_in_bay.html

Storms Breed Bacteria Levels More Than Double what EPA Considers Safe in the Santa Monica Bay

As heavy rain falls this week in Los Angeles, we hit the beach to see how the rain is affecting water quality in the Santa Monica Bay. Our results were shocking, with bacteria levels more than double what the EPA considers safe. Here are the numbers:

• 223 Santa Monica Pier*
• 331 Bay Street*
• 120 Where the Pico-Kenter storm drain meets the ocean (average)*
• 7,915 Runoff in the Pico Kenter storm drain (from the streets of LA)*

• 104 The maximum bacteria EPA allows before the water is deemed unsafe*
  

• *enterococcus (a fecal bacteria whose presence suggests that other harmful bacteria and viruses are also present), measured by organisms per milliliter

As you can see, bacteria levels in the runoff were more than 75 times higher than what the EPA considers safe.

We don't care what kind of a swell this storm brings, you should not be surfing or swimming in this water! In fact, you should stay out of the water 72 hours after it rains any time in LA, because this is when the water carries high levels of trash, cigarette butts, heavy metals, and disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

Teach and Test Presentation to Peace Troop

Members of the Samohi Teach and Test Program gave a presentation to a group of girls from Overland Elementary School called the Peace Troop. The Samohi Teach and Test program is committed to outreach and educating others (especially the youth) about the problems facing our oceans and what we can do to help.



During the presentation members of the Samohi Teach and Test Program showed the students our water samples from the "First Flush".

The Night of the First Flush

Pictured above in what flowed out of the Pico-Kenter storm drain during the first flush on October 14th 2009. All the trash that had been building up in our storm drains over the summer hurdled into the ocean. Trash such as styrofoam and plastic water bottles will never biodegrade in the ocean. They will simply photo degrade into smaller and smaller pieces adding to the plastic soup that is the North Pacific Gyre. This needs to stop!

We were on high alert as the first rain began to fall in Santa Monica. We did not expect such a large flush so soon. Once we were alerted that the storm drain was flowing Devany, Raphael, Mr. Kay, Kou, Megan and Mel ran down to the beach at 8pm to film the devastation.

A thick layer of foam covered the surface of the stagnant pool of urban run-off.

Heal The Bay Surfrider Club and Team Marine's 5th annual Ban The Bag March was a huge success. Front page of the Santa Monica Daily Press!!!

http://www.smdp.com/pdf/091909.pdf