Corona del Mar High School seniors Ariana & Kelsey restored habitat at the ENC for their Senior Projects…Kelsey is monitoring the habitat to see what is there so hopefully after the restoration she will find that the habitat has improved.Planting riparian species in her project location. Ariana is doing a line transect – determining what species are already there (both native and non-native).She visited countless times to weed, weed, weed!Finally – today she planted the plants that SHE determined though her own research to be appropriate locally native riparian plants.

Watch the video of this experiment HERE.Watch another Mad Science experiment HERE!

Playing dress up. Using our imaginations. Mark Hay teaching the Native Skills Campers how to sharpen and harden their arrows. Fire hardening the arrows. Sharpening the arrows. The front page image from the Daily Pilot’s article about Tom Sawyer Adventure Camp, on 12-28-09. “Carving” toys out of clay. Making and painting a “fence” – just like Tom Sawyer did! “Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?” – Mark Twain. Mr. Dan reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas by Trosclair with his authentic accent! Trosclair (Author) › Visit Amazon’s Trosclair Page Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author Are you…

Holidays Gone Raw, taught by Raw Food Chef Alysha Maiorelli, focused on making simple and amazingly delicious recipes using vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains. Everyone enjoyed the yummy food! § Tagliatelle, an Italian pasta, with a light sage and basil “cream” sauce over wilted spinach and topped with marinated mushrooms, “sausage”, and pine nut Parmesan. § Cinnamon Donut Holes drizzled with caramel sauce – I bet you thought being healthy meant giving up donuts, right? Not with raw foods! These donuts are much better and an excellent dessert that is great to bring to those Christmas parties! § Apple Cobbler – inspired by my Grandmother’s famous apple pie, this dessert can be whipped up in minutes, but the warming spices speak to the…

Take a look at the expression on the little blonde girl with her hand raised – she just won the children’s auction!

Our new oak tree – delivery donated by Rogers Gardens.The hole.Lowering her in!Student volunteers re-fill the hole.

The ENC had a visit from a Great Horned Owl today! Look at those TALONS! A sycamore tree is a good place to sit. WHOOOO is there?

Nick & Sama leaving their handprints on the ENC’s new tapestry.Kathy, Valerie & Lauren serving up mud, water, plants, worms and plankton for their “Edible Wetlands” on Naturama Day.having an orca painted on his face.Bob telling the campers about deep sea fishes. Making Jellies!Completed Jellies!Decorating our bags donated by Mother’s Market!Eating our Edible Wetlands! YUM.Sea Star pancakes.Sama telling a story.

Campers flocked to the field to cheer on their Junior Naturalists in an Ultimate Frisbee competition!Every time I take a picture of Will he’s 2 feet in the air! Boys won, but both teams did great. Stay tuned for next Summer for the re-match. I will be sure to recruit more Frisbee players as JNs next year! Kate read the Yellow & Orange Group a story in our Tongva kich. The Yellow & Orange Group also made these fabulous fish! Valerie reads a story to the Red/Purple Group – it was definitely a story time day! Kathy also read a story to the Red/Purple group – they’re a very well read group of kids! The Red/Purple group painted “Side II” of their t-shirts – the…

Green & Blue learned about the rain forest and created rain sticks. Red & Purple played a game to learn about biomagnification. Some of the students were worms, and they ate “plankton.” Some of the students were fish and ate worms, and one of the students was an osprey and ate the fish. Once the game was over students discovered that some of the plankton had been contaminated by DDT, and so the poison had moved up the food chain (biomagnification).The osprey is eating the fish.The worms are eating plankton. The Black & White group played a game to learn how energy is transferred up the food chain. These cups represent the producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers and top consumers. The water represents energy. All…

Our Ocean Institute Naturalist helps us measure the juvenile Gray Whale’s length.Baleen.Using combs to simulate baleen.Anther Ocean Institute Naturalist shows us some marine mammal bones. Here she is holding a dolphin skull.Searching for intertidal animals in the harbor rocks.Listening to a story about the sea.This Naturalist showed us the length of a squid using the rope!