EarthLab Climate Action Park
A 4-acre experiential environmental educational space for the youth and families of the Chollas Creek Watershed.
D Y N A M I C P A R T N E R S H I P :
Groundwork San Diego
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UCSD Center on Global Justice
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Millennial Tech Middle School
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San Diego Unified Lincoln Cluster of 13 Schools
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Groundwork San Diego • UCSD Center on Global Justice • Millennial Tech Middle School • San Diego Unified Lincoln Cluster of 13 Schools •
By linking technology and science (reason), ecology and conservation (empathy), and culture and arts (expression), the EarthLab Learning Method aspires to integrate siloed forms of learning, and promote circulation between the formal classroom and the environmental design labs and outdoor activities that comprise Community Station programming.
EarthLab Learning Method
The EarthLab Method operates as a portfolio of lessons and activities designed to improve the scientific, ecological, and cultural literacy of students.
Through experiential focused STEAM activities, students learn in dynamic ways:
Like a scientist - They reason using evidence.
Like an ecologist - They experience the knowledge of nature and cultivate a desire to conserve valuable resources.
Like an artist – They are inspired to translate cultural indigenous traditions into practical tools for today’s environmental challenges.
The UCSD Community Stations embrace a collaborative model of engagement, in which the university and the community relate as partners both contributing knowledges and resources, and actively participating in collaborative research, learning and problem solving, with the result of co-producing new knowledge and solutions.
The EarthLab Community Station is committed to a model of experiential learning for undergraduates and for the K-12 students who participate in the EarthLab mentorship and environmental educational programs. Educational programming for K-12 students is based on the EarthLab Learning Method, designed by UC San Diego Sociologist Bud Mehan, in collaboration with the nonprofit Groundwork San Diego and the San Diego Unified School District.
The UCSD undergraduate internship programs immerse multi-disciplinary student teams at EarthLab, and train them to:
analyze societal challenges through intersectional lenses.
communicate across disciplinary languages and knowledges.
engage in collaborative problem-solving with each other and our community partners.
Through this experiential model, both UCSD and K-12 students become the civically-engaged, problem-solvers of the future.
The San Diego Unified School District, MTM and the Lincoln School Cluster, Groundwork San Diego, and the University of California San Diego Center on Global Justice have partnered to support social, educational, and environmental equity, and climate stewardship at the EARTHLAB.
Master Plan
In the next years, the Millennial Tech Middle School (MTM) campus will transform into a school designed for a new level of environmental education AND CLIMATE SCIENCE-- a new Climate Action Makers Lab building will be built, and the EarthLab will be enhanced to support all the additional educational activities at the Climate Action Park.
The vision is to further integrate MTM with The EarthLab, so that outdoor school-day and after-school programs AND SUMMER can be enhanced for the benefit of our children.
