On Thursday, May 31, over forty 5th-12th-grade students from six public schools in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties will be presenting their authored environmental business proposals to a judging panel. Students’ proposals focus on water conservation, energy efficiency, or waste reduction of their school campuses, or educate a community about ocean acidification. The event will take place at the Museum of Ventura County from 4 -7 pm.
In the first hour and a half, the 40 finalists will present to a panel of judges who will rank the project proposals based on merit and cost effectiveness. Then at 5:30 pm, the MERITO Foundation in partnership with NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary will award cash or in kind prizes to the young authors of top environmental business proposals.
Energy Efficiency to Mitigate Climate Change and Ocean Acidification “EECCOA” is a project-based science education program of the MERITO Foundation that provides energy, climate and ocean literacy services and products to 8th – 12th grade teachers and their students aligned to Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS1) and Common Core State Standards (CCSS2).
The EECCOA Awards Event is the culmination of the 9 month-long EECCCOA Program. The following schools will have students present or display their project proposals:
The Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans (MERITO) Foundation is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization based in Ventura dedicated to protecting the ocean by facilitating education, conservation and scientific research opportunities to multicultural youth and their communities. The EECCOA Challenge empowers students to be environmental entrepreneurs by providing them through their teachers, with the tools to understand climate change, ocean acidification, drought and wildfires and address these issues with money saving project proposals for their school campuses. Students are also given the option to develop awareness campaigns that inform and involve their communities.
The EECCCOA Program and EECCOA Awards Event sponsors include: NOAA B-WET Grant, Sea Forward Fund, Ventura Water, Arcturus Manufacturing Corp (through a settlement agreement filed by Wishtoyo Foundation), Island Packers and Montecito Bank and Trust.
