Outdoor Environmental Education for Title One Students

The Authority helped to fund Living Classroom’s partnership with Campbell Unified School District to implement their new Environmental Literacy Initiative called "Champions for Change.” This project focuses on designing, installing, and maintaining new and enhanced edible and native habitat gardens on all Campbell Unified School District campuses and providing garden-based lessons across all grade levels with the aim of connecting students to nature and the sources of their food and graduating environmentally literate students by 8th grade.

The Authority contributed funds towards San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory's (SFBBO) Coyote Creek Field Station Environmental Education Program. SFBBO operates a research bird-banding station at Coyote Creek, located at the urban boundary of San Jose and Milpitas, and engages dozens of volunteers and hundreds of visitors each year. For this project, SFBBO worked with interns from local universities to develop a place and a inquiry-based education module to bring students from six classrooms to engage in both classroom and field learning activities.

The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council (Ridge Trail) is expanding public trail access at Máyyan 'Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve (Coyote Ridge) and growing public support for recreation, protection, and conservation at the preserve, under the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority’s (Authority) Urban Grants Program. The Ridge Trail is hosting eight guided trail outings at Coyote Ridge for 12-24 participants, in coordination with community partners, to broaden access for individuals and/or families within the Authority’s jurisdiction who have been historically underrepresented. These 3-7 mile nature-based, hiking experiences introduce residents to the trails at Coyote Ridge, scheduled to open for limited access to the public in late 2023.