Teachers who wish to learn and participate in teaching STEP are offered a two-day workshop, which provides cooperative learning, utilizing actual lessons from the curriculum material. Teachers interact and learn together, exchanging ideas and experiences with each other and with the trainers who are teachers themselves. Highlights include demonstrations of favorite lessons and activities including an off site stream study and an overview of the classroom incubation activity.

Teachers learn actual methods and techniques for working with groups of students out on a stream and how to process streamside information back in the classroom. Teachers are provided with a copy of the original STEP curriculum, revised lessons, and a packet of resource materials. For teachers who desire to participate in classroom incubation, guidance is given in the materials required, actual set-up and the permitting process required to allow live wild steelhead eggs to be raised to fry stage and then be released into a local stream.

STEP is a comprehensive curriculum that encompasses all subjects including but not limited to biology, mathematics, reading and art. It uses the "salmonid life cycles and habitat requirements" as central theme and has been recognized by state educators as a "model of thematic teaching". In most instances, an aquarium and chiller will be placed in the class room. Fertilized eggs (supplied under permit from the Department of Fish and Game by the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project Research Facility) are placed in the aquarium. Through teacher training and their use of the "resource kit", students learn that there is much more involved than simply watching a salmon egg hatch. After the eggs have successfully hatched and the fry have matured to the point of the "yolk and the fry sac" being absorbed, the fry are released into a pre-selected coastal stream in an effort to enhance native fish populations.

The STEP program is part of the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project (MBS&TP) which is a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to restoring the runs of native salmon and steelhead. The Salmon & Trout Education Program has been in existence since its pilot conception in 1987. From this one classroom the program and a network of teachers has grown to over 150 classrooms. Classrooms from agricultural communities such as Gonzales and Salinas, or from the urban inner cities of San Jose or Santa Clara or from the coastal hills of Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties have all joined together to form what is known as STEP. Several school districts have chosen to take STEP district-wide as well, allowing mentors and leaders to develop a scope and sequence within their own district. Teachers share and link information and experiences locally, regionally and world wide via the NET.

The Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project and STEP would like to thank and recognize many local organizations such as the San Lorenzo Valley High School Watershed Academy, General Electric's Elfuns, and the San Jose Flycasters Educational Foundation for their strong support. The San Jose Flycasters Educational Foundation, along with GE Elfuns, coordinates much of the STEP activities in Santa Clara County.

 

San Lorenzo Valley High School Watershed Academy

For more details regarding how your school or organization might participate in the Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project STEP program, contact Terry Umstead (also , advisor of the San Lorenzo Valley High School Watershed Academy.

Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project Big Creek Research Facility: 831-458-3095

STEP Educational Advisor- Barry Burt: 831-688-0187

STEP Coordinator- Hugh Miller: 408-268-3945