Marine Education Volunteers

Through hands-on inquiry based projects, students are discovering the value of clean water and the role they can play in protecting this valuable resource. Whidbey Watershed Stewards and their team of community volunteers work alongside students in the field and in their classroom.

Throughout the school year, WWS staff coordinates a series of marine science lessons in middle school classrooms, at the Langley Marina, or now in the Environmental Learning Center. Volunteer instructors, especially those with a background in marine science, are especially helpful on field trip days.

Volunteers help manage student groups and run science stations - you may help students observe plankton under the microscope, lead students in water quality sampling, chemical testing and recording, help launch students’ homemade buoy/data-logging equipment, build or retrieve plankton-collecting tiles from the marina docks, dissect mussels, lead students in bathymetry modeling, or assist with other oceanography lessons.

Please contact Shelby Woyciesjes for more information about volunteering for this program.

Salmon in the Classroom Volunteers

Each school year, roughly 600 K-5th grade students receive classroom instruction on the development and anatomy of salmon and their habitat, while observing salmon eggs and life cycle before their eyes in classroom aquariums.

Fifth grade students from South Whidbey are invited to apply to become Salmon Ambassadors. Between 10-20 students are selected as Ambassadors who will receive small group instruction on salmon life cycle, development, and the techniques to raise juvenile salmon in classroom aquariums. Salmon Ambassadors attend a special field trip to retrieve salmon eggs from the hatchery, and also pass along their expertise by teaching their peers what they have learned.

Adult volunteers helping our staff with the Salmon in the Classroom program will help manage student groups and may help execute a series of activities such as aquarium set up, salmon feeding and tank maintenance, assistance with in-classroom lessons on salmon development and anatomy, or assistance with the Salmon Release at the Outdoor Classroom.

Please contact Shelby Woyciesjes for more information about volunteering for this program.