Sierra Nevada Journeys Brought Exciting New Ecology Lessons to the Classroom

Sierra Nevada Journeys partnered with the Language Academy in Sacramento to deliver a week-long day camp centered around the vital role that salmon plays in the area’s local ecosystems. Throughout the week, students engaged in multi-day projects that highlighted the importance of this keystone species and how they benefit the environment. Students learned about salmon’s significance in indigenous cultures, underscoring the symbiotic relationship that salmon have with the land and the people who occupy it. This project included creating a mural illustrating the salmon’s migration paths, an activity that had students working collaboratively to create an image that spanned nearly the entire length of the classroom. They also drew salmon illustrations and dioramas replicating the nests that salmon make in their habitats. Some students wrote stories about the salmon and performed them in a larger-than-life puppet theatre created by our educators.

“One of the best parts about building lessons at Sierra Nevada Journeys is that we can take a broad subject and teach it using examples that are recognizable and relevant to the students based on their geography,” said Corrie Calderon, Senior Program Director. By bringing science to life in such an interactive way, students not only deepened their understanding of local ecosystems but also developed a stronger connection to the natural world around them.