Green Schoolyard Alliance and Preparing the Ground
School Gardens
A school garden can give students a point of reference for understanding the larger ecosystem and provide an excellent springboard for the study of the local environment. School gardens support academic study and foster environmental stewardship, creativity, and community building. Assistance is available for schoolyard design, implementation, and curricular connections. A web-based resource guide and biweekly resource bulletin are also available.
Contact: San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance/Nan McGuire, (415) 673-7074,
or Preparing the Ground/Arden Bucklin-Sporer, (415) 695-5625

Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ)
Heron’s Head Park
Literacy for Environmental Justice offers free programs in Heron’s Head Park (in southeast San Francisco) to public school and youth groups. Park programs are designed to promote a sense of place and, ultimately, community stewardship in young participants through both in-class and outdoor activities that focus on the themes of wetland ecology and restoration.
Contact: Ben Francisco, (415) 282-6840, or heronshead@lejyouth.org

California Academy of Sciences
Wild City!
Wild City! is a five-week program that examines the concepts of biodiversity as they are related to local wetland and oak woodland ecosystems. The program is offered at no charge to fourth- and fifth-grade SFUSD classrooms where at least half of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Wild City! consists of four classroom visits and a field trip to one of San Francisco’s natural areas, where students participate in a restoration project. Contact: Jessica Chiarchiaro, (415) 321-8112, or jchiarchiaro@calacademy.org

San Francisco Recreation & Parks
Youth Stewardship Program
The Youth Stewardship Program (YSP) engages students in grades 4 through 12 in place-based/service learning and habitat restoration projects in neighborhood natural areas and parks. Investigations of the City’s rich biodiversity, thematic hands-on environmental education and science activities follow a seasonal progression in a year-long program. YSP’s mission is to foster an understanding of young people’s important role in helping build healthy social and natural communities.
Contact: Cheri Garamendi, (415) 831-6329, or cheri.garamendi@sfgov.org

San Francisco PARKS TRUST
Kids in Parks
Kids in Parks takes science classes on biweekly field trips to San Francisco parks.
The program provides a year-long sequence that combines hands-on restoration activities with lessons ranging from mapping, flora and fauna identification and observation, watershed and water cycle models, journaling, and art in nature projects.
Contact: Charlotte Hill, (415) 824-2083, or charhill@prodigy.net

Presidio and the Golden Gate National Parks
National Park Service Learning
Students participate in preserving and protecting National Park lands and have great fun doing it. Working with park specialists, they investigate resource management issues in the field, and gain a wider understanding of science as they apply their skills to a curriculum-based, habitat restoration project. Students have opportunities to propagate plants, remove invasive species, and plant seedlings in restoration sites. In addition to 15 natural areas in the park, facilities include a native plant nursery and an environmental center at Crissy Field.
Contact: Aleutia Scott, (415) 669-8429, or Aleutia_Scott@nps.gov