Intel: Re-connecting youth with nature

By Victoria Nguyen

In a world of iPhones, Facebook and Kindles, technology has people spending more face time with the cold, blue glow of computer screens than with the warm, flushed faces of our human companions.

Along with the loss of personal interaction, many city dwellers also are becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural environment that surrounds their communities. Herb Felsenfeld, a resource specialist at San Francisco’s Woodside High School, said he’s witnessed the phenomenon inside the classroom, as well.

“[High school kids] see the same kids everyday and walk around in a concrete environment,” said Felsenfeld, who co-teaches an integrated science class. “It’s easy for them to forget that this is not the real world – the real world is a huge, interconnected series of environments.”

Intel Corporation – the world’s leading silicon innovator and computer chipmaker – is helping to connect Bay Area students and educators back to the soil. Intel, which has its headquarters in Santa Clara and another facility in Folsom, has been providing annual grants to fund science-based education programs such as Oakland’s Save the Bay and San Francisco’s NatureBridge. These programs, according to Intel’s External Affairs Manager Mark Pettinger, lets inner city kids experience the natural environment surrounding them.

“A lot of the kids from the underserved, urban communities live right by the Bay, but many haven’t been there,” said Pettinger. “[These organizations] give opportunities to students to see nature in their backyard.”

As part of its local and international education support, Intel has helped fund Save the Bay and NatureBridge collectively for the past decade. Both organizations provide curriculum for science educators that adhere to the California state standards for science while promoting experiential learning and the message that nature is – well, pretty darn cool.

Currently, Intel is in its seventh year with Save the Bay. According to its Web site, Save the Bay, which began in 1961, is the largest regional organization working to protect, restore and celebrate the San Francisco Bay. Its projects include reducing pollution, enacting environmental policies and restoring 100,000 acres of wetlands around the Bay.

Additionally, Save the Bay also has education programs that Intel has supported financially on various levels. One program is called Canoes in Sloughs, which takes middle and high school students on daylong canoeing adventures at eight different sites around the Bay. Another program, which Intel awarded $15,000 to this year, is a three-day workshop called Ecology in Education that takes educators around the Bay in order to learn new curriculum and activities that can be brought back to the classrooms.

According to Andrea Guerts, Save the Bay’s deputy director of Community Engagement, their partnership with Intel is a natural fit.
“What’s important for Intel is our work with teachers and students,” said Guerts. “They are really geared towards teacher professional development and supporting teachers with their efforts to teach.”

Along with making their programs possible, Guerts said that Intel’s involvement with Save the Bay also opens doors to connect with wider audiences and build credibility for the organization.

“Having a well-known, highly successful and incredible business like Intel supporting our work helps establish credibility,” she said. “It opens us to new audiences and for Save the Bay to be successful, we need to have our communities backing us.”

While Save the Bay’s Ecology in Education focuses on educating teachers, the NatureBridge organization brings science textbooks to life for students. The organization, which has campuses in Yosemite, Olympic National Park, the Marin Headlands and the Santa Monica Mountains, takes students on field trips that last up to five days. Each site’s unique landscape offers a wide range of learning activities, such as testing water quality, measuring sequoias and working in science labs.

The local Marin Headlands campus, called the Headlands Institute, was founded in 1977 and has hosted field trips from San Francisco schools such as Cesar Chavez, George Peabody and Town School for Boys. Since 2007, Intel has helped provide the students at the Headlands Institute, as well as those at the Olympic and Yosemite campuses, with bio-monitoring instruments – hand-held devices that are used in field science research.

“One of our goals is for students to become observers … to look at their environments and ask questions. And technology can be a huge use in answering that,” said Jason Morris, NatureBridge’s vice president of external affairs.

According to Morris, half of Intel’s contribution goes to providing the bio-monitoring instruments, while the other goes to scholarship funding for youth who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend the program. Morris said the role Intel plays in supporting education programs is an important one.
“As corporations become larger and employ more people, they become a part of the community,” he said.

James Corboy, an earth science teacher at Menlo Atherton High School, attended Save the Bay’s Ecology in Education program and agreed with Morris.

“Intel has a moral obligation to assist the community,” said Corboy. “… It’s only with funding from companies like Intel that kids will get [these kind of opportunities.]”

For more information on Save the Bay, visit www.savesfbay.org. For information on NatureBridge, visit www.naturebridge.org.