Magnolia Students Blossom

For the past two years, Heal the Bay has helped to bring hands-on science and provide meaningful experiences for elementary students as partners with teaching collaborative, Education by Nature, headed by Children’s Nature Institute.

Heal the Bay’s Melissa Aguayo, our Speakers Bureau manager, recently completed a pilot program at Magnolia Elementary school, providing extensive science education to Magnolia students.

Located near the Pico-Union neighborhood, the school serves a high percentage of youth from low-income families, with 90% of the student body qualifying for the free lunch program.

We were ecstatic when teacher Marta Shallcross, our all-star partner at the school, let us know that Magnolia’s API scoreincreased 66 points to 770, which in the world of test scores, is a big deal!

The school’s third graders in particular scored exceptionally well, which Ms. Shallcross partly attributes to the partnership, which was focused on supporting California’s science standards.

Building upon this success, we’ll continue to work with Magnolia while simultaneously expanding the program to a new school in 2014.

Bring marine science into your student’s classroom with one of our inspiring speakers!