School has garden and science-based learning labs
Published in the April 29 – May 12, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By the sixth-grade GATE students at San Martin/Gwinn Environmental Science Academy
Photo by Elver Avendano, age 12
Solimar Gonzalez, a teacher On Special Assignment at San Martin/Gwinn, teaches students about plants on Earth Day.
Members of the Morgan Hill community celebrated the opening of the newly revamped San Martin/Gwinn Environmental Science Academy at a special ribbon-cutting ceremony last September. Attendees at that event last fall discovered the transition of the campus from a traditional K-6 elementary school to a science-based magnet school by viewing science stations explaining microscopes, rockets and water conservation.
“I believe this year we’ve made a lot of growth both academically and with our personnel,” said Principal Claudia Olaciregui who leads the campus of 535 students and 27 teachers. “One of our main goals this year is the acquisition and integration of technology into our students’ educational experience.”
One aspect of the technology comes from some of the money from the $198-million Measure G bond fund. San Martin/Gwinn also receives Title 1 funding, money that goes to schools whose students are in disadvantage. Among the new technology opportunities, students work with Chromebooks for third through six grades and tablets for kindergarten through second grade. Also, the school has two science-based learning labs where students conduct experiments and get an understanding about real-world environmental issues such as crude oil spilling into water and how to clean out.
Sixth grade student Alejandro Resendiz places a garden scarecrow in a barrel.
Photo by Chris Garcia, age 11
“One of our biggest assets from the point of view of our academy is that we do have two top-of-the line labs that are constantly used and the students visit the labs at least once a week to do science experiments,” Olaciregui said.
The changes at the academy have had a positive effect on the students, said Ben Hayes, a fourth grader, who came to the campus this school year after moving from San Jose to Morgan Hill.
“I didn’t know what engineering was before I came here. You get to build stuff that you didn’t think you could build because it becomes easier once you learn the concept and stuff,” he said.
The new science-focused curriculum has made him more aware about the environment and makes him want to be an ornithologist because he is passionate about birds.
“My interest (in science) gets stronger here, but when I was little I wanted to be a marine biologist and all. It didn’t necessarily start here but my passion got stronger,” he said.
Mason Woods, 10, has gone to the school his whole life and is happy with the recent changes.
“I was actually kind of glad because I always wanted to build stuff because when I grow up, I want to work at Lego,” he said. “My parents said I would be a good engineer so I might as well work there as an engineer.”
The fourth-grader’s involvement in learning science at San Martin/Gwinn has grown his passion to become an engineer.
“I always loved building, and I wanted to see why scientists like building this stuff and the school showed me that engineers can have fun working all day,” he said.
First-grade students learn to make paper.Photo by Chris Garcia, age 11
On Earth Day April 22, the sixth-grade students planted table-grape grapevines that will grow for many years, helping future students learn about agriculture and how to grow and enjoy the fruit.
“The theory behind this is to learn about earth science and how crops grow and all the components for the process,” Olaciregui said. “We’re also doing an environmental restoration project with kindergartners and fourth-graders planting redwoods and oak trees.”
The study of science in classrooms as well as through extra-curricular activities at the academy is extensively hands-on.
The campus has many after-school programs such as a Science Club and Mural Club. The Mural Club is a partnership with Gavilan College to create murals for the school. Every year the sixth-graders paint a mural before they leave the school. It is a tradition and gift. This year’s mural will be put in the cafeteria and promote healthy eating.
Students plant a grapefine in the school garden. Photo by Chris Garcia, age 11
The school also has two science labs. The students focus on real-world problems and try to solve them. To help students understand the meaning of the world’s problems, they do hands-on experiments. For example, to understand the idea of oil spills, students poured oil into water and dirt and used different materials to try and get the oil out.
“I think the main difference is the integration of utilizing next-generation science curriculum which is aligned with the Common Core curriculum,” Olaciregui said.
The principal is “extremely excited” with the fact that the campus is partnering with Stanford University on the SCALE (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity) program which uses the latest resources in education and innovation, she said.
“Working with the professors who have developed this curriculum is great for kids because they are being exposed early to standards that the rest of California kids will be exposed to,” she said.
Students learn how to plant a grapevine on Earth Day. Photo by Elver Avendano, age 12
The school’s Dual Immersion Multi-Cultural Education program began three years ago and has proven successful as an innovative way for young minds to develop their language skills in English and Spanish, Olaciregui said.
“I think it’s of great importance that we have a dual-immersion program because having a second or third language is critical for our society today. Being bi-literate when you graduate from college opens so many career opportunities,” she said. “Our society is amazingly multicultural so we need to be able to interact with others and understand different cultures.”
DIME students in kindergarten spend about 90 percent of their day learning Spanish and 10 percent of their day learning English. They will eventually end up to be learning 50 percent Spanish and 50 percent learning English by the fourth grade.
The dual-immersion program has been researched for more than 25 years and people who have been working with it for many years have a high success rate, Olaciregui said. Only about 500 schools across the nation are using this bilingual program for their students.
“A lot of the research that has been conducted show that people who are bilingual utilize more parts of their brain than people who use only a single language,” she said.
Kindergartners plant a tree on Earth Day. Photo by Elver Avendano, age 12
Family and parental involvement is an important aspect of the school’s values. The whole school community, including staff members, parents, teachers, and students have worked hard to successfully introduce the changes at the school and the enhanced focus on environmental science. There’s also a social aspect to the school community. One of the most enjoyable activities the young people have is a movie night where they can come, get comfortable with their friends and enjoy a film.
“I honestly and truly believe that the success of education is a teamwork between the families, the students, and the school personnel,” Olaciregui said. “So having the parents involved in the education of the students enhances the academic achievement of our students. They can be active participants in the process. We have parents who volunteer from anything from making copies, all the way to working with students in small groups for reading support.”
Some parents help out by making compost for the garden from the cafeteria food as well as volunteering for activities after school such as movies or after-school day-care. There’s also social involvement from two groups — Dads on Duty as well as Moms on a Mission. The turnout of parents from the social activities were impressive as 90 fathers showed up for Dads on Duty and 50 mothers for Moms on a Mission.
First graders learn how to make paper. Photo by Chris Garcia, age 11
San Martin/Gwinn parent Teresa Perez loves volunteering at the school. She has three kids at the campus, a first grader, third grader, and fifth grader, two of whom are in DIME.
“I like the aspect of them not just being in a classroom the whole time. There are opportunities for them to go to the lab or the garden. I like the hands-on approach,” she said. “Kids who don’t learn well just on textbooks can learn with hands-on and for certain kids, it clicks in a different way. It’s not learning that’s just tailored for one certain kind of kid.”
The Common Core standards have been difficult at times, especially for her oldest daughter because she has been doing things from kindergarten a certain way, and now at fifth-grade it’s different. So it’s a little harder for Perez to help with homework because the answers are the same but there are different steps to get to the answers. She also enjoys helping out the teachers with yard duty, classroom support and other campus activities.
“It’s great to be a volunteer and to be involved,” she said. “You really get to know the staff and teachers and have a better relationship with all the staff. You feel more at ease to ask the simple questions. If you get to know the teachers and volunteers, the teachers are really happy to have any kind of questions because they can’t read your mind.”
First-grade teacher Karenlee Zandi loves getting involved with her students and teaching them about California’s drought issues. Her class came up with project ideas, one of which were saving water by storing rain in water barrels. Kids originally thought of putting cups outside to catch the rain.
“We might need more water than that, and they said how about if we get an umbrella and put it upside down and that would gather more water and you’ll have more water,” the teacher said.
The students became involved and enthusiastic about this new water conservation project and started going to work in the design.
“Our project was that they would design how to put rain barrels out in the garden, and everyone drew rain barrels and pipes and spigots right where they would want it,” she said.
Teaching students about the importance of conservation is preparing them for being environmentally aware of the drought and what they have to do to help. The first-graders’ project was recently approved by the school district.
“They’re going to be the people of the future. If they’re already excited and involved, they’ll share their lives around conserving our water, or recycling or keeping our sources going,” Zandi said.
The San Martin/Gwinn Environmental Science Academy students who wrote this story are Aleah Rafat, Madison Langley, Nalani Villarreal, Kayleigh Bajarin, Mia Dominguez, and Allison Webenbauer. They participated in a junior journalist workshop taught by Morgan Hill Life Publisher Marty Cheek.
