For Pupils, Fun and Facts Come in With the Tide

When the mobile tide-pool van swings into their school’s parking lot and sets up shop, the second-graders of Junipero Serra Elementary are so enthusiastic, one might think they had been let loose in a video arcade.

But it’s live sea urchins and sea crabs they are exclaiming over. The children squeeze around the display tables and lean as far over the portable tide pools as gravity will allow.

It’s educational, and the kids are loving it.

“I want to touch them all!” said second-grader Beau Raybon at the Ventura school Thursday morning.

“It’s OK--you can,” responded U.S. Park Service Ranger Tom Dore, before naming the strange sea creatures, such as the lurid pink urchin and giant sea snail.

“The sea urchin is my favorite, ‘cause it feels real weird,” said Beau’s classmate, Tia Solis.

Dore played teacher for a minute as the kids crowded around the glass tanks. “Guess what this is called?” he said.

A porcupine, someone responded.

“No it’s a purple sea urchin,” Dore said. “See all its spines. What’s similar between the sea urchin and the sea stars?”

“They’re purple!” three voices piped up in unison.

At the far end of the display table, two second-grade boys were energetically grinding up real acorns with a stone mortar and pestle recovered from one of the Channel islands.

“The Chumash guys ate this stuff?” one said, almost to himself. Next to the mortar was a replica of a pygmy mammoth jawbone found on San Miguel Island.

“Go ahead, touch it,” Dore said.

The traveling tide-pool van is the latest addition to the National Park Service’s Parks as Classrooms program. They have dubbed the van “Tidepools to Schools” and geared the program to second- to fifth-graders.

“Some students have never been to the beach before, even ones who live in coastal Ventura and Oxnard,” said Carol Spears, a park service ranger.

Her boss, Channel Islands National Park Supt. Tim Setnicka, chimed in, “So we bring the Channel Islands National Park right into the classroom.”

Spears loves the effect of the traveling tide pool on the youngsters. “When they actually touch something like a living sea urchin, there is a look of wonder on their faces. That is priceless to me.”

Any school in Ventura County can arrange a free visit from the sea creatures and marine education van. There is just one hitch--the waiting list is long.

“We’re fully booked right now,” said Spears, who added that it’s still important to get on the waiting list. “This is approved by the California Department of Education. The teachers really want this.

“And we at the park service want the kids to know this national park is in their hands. They’ll have to take care of it some day.”

The Tidepools to Schools program actually began in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in 1996, and 16 different classroom presentations are still available to teachers, all tied into existing curricula, Setnicka said.

The van, which came about through a grant from the National Park Foundation, is also equipped with other props, videos and interactive models.

For information or to arrange for a classroom program or mobile van visit to an elementary school in Ventura County, call Spears at Channel Islands National Park at 658-5700.

The park headquarters, at 1901 Spinnaker Drive in Ventura Harbor, also has a permanent marine tide-pool exhibit in park headquarters and is open daily.