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The MERITO Academy Educators Workshop (MAEW)

The MERITO Educator Workshop consists of a 3 day intensive workshop for 4th to 8th grade teachers and after school program leaders that serve primarily minority or unpriviliged students in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. During the workshop teachers and after-school program leaders receive instruction on the application of hands-on field and in-class environmental and marine sciences as they relate to the Santa Barbara Channel region. These activities are drawn from the Channel Islands MERITO Academy curriculum adapted to the Santa Barbara Channel environments and fully aligned with California State Standards in mathematics, science, language arts, visual, and performing arts, and English language development.


Through community service learning projects such as beach clean-ups, habitat restoration projects, sand crab and water quality monitoring, teachers will help students build a sense of environmental stewardship and community pride. CINMS and MERITO Academy staff and partner organizations provide support to the workshop participants throughout the academic year by helping implement the in-class and in-the-field inquiry based activities of the Channel Islands MERITO curriculum. Click here for more information on the MERITO Academy student programming.

The MERITO Academy Educators Workshop (MAEW) is a partnership between Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (CINMS) and Channel Islands Marine Resource Institute (CIMRI) sponsored by NOAA B-WET grant and the National Marine Sanctuary Program (NMSP).