A program that began 30 years ago in an unused classroom at Cabrillo High School has come quite a long way since its infancy. Founded by Dave Long, the lone teacher who began the Cabrillo High School Aquarium along with just one student in 1986, the aquarium has attracted a club of dedicated students across the years that kept the small program swimming upstream and expanding the whole time.
Due to the success of the Cabrillo High School Aquarium, construction began on an expanded 5,000-square-foot facility in 2000, which opened in 2002. The larger facility boasts dozens of exhibits, space for hands-on activities, and tanks with nearly 3,000 gallons of water, all teaming with various forms of marine life.
Most remarkable about the Cabrillo High School Aquarium though is the fact that it’s almost entirely student run, explained program Director Greg Eisen. The teenage students handle everything from feeding animals and cleaning tanks to running the gift shop or producing multimedia presentations. Their collective skill will be on full display at an upcoming Earth Day-themed open house event on April 21.
“There’s a lot of different avenues for students to specialize in here in our program,” Eisen said. “And one of the things they get to do is lead tours, for elementary schools mostly, but also for open house events such as this one coming up. We host up to 6,000 visitors a year.”
Cabrillo High students will lead families and guests through a number of exhibits, educating about wildlife as well as about current issues facing the ocean like acidification and accumulation of plastic waste. There will also be a number of crafty activities that let kids and parents take home marine-themed creations. The event is free to attend, Eisen said, adding that the open house events occur monthly during the school year.
The program is successful for a number of reasons, Eisen explained, including support from the school district, which pays to bus fifth graders to the aquarium. This has essentially worked as a potent recruiting tool for the program, explained Chris Ladwig, a teacher and program advisor for Cabrillo who was actually involved with the aquarium as a high school student in the early 2000s.
“Kids, fourth and fifth graders, they just fall in love with this place,” Ladwig said. “We see a lot of kids who end up here at Cabrillo who get involved in the aquarium, and their interest was first sparked when they visited this place in the fifth grade.”
The students involved in the program need to be motivated, Ladwig and Eisen explained, as they are responsible for quite a lot of creatures, both plant and animal.
They also complete projects regularly, conduct experiments, and change a number of the exhibits in preparation for the monthly open house events. To accomplish all this, the kids have to work in teams, the teachers explained, all while developing a number of important skills.
“It’s all project-based learning, and the students develop an extreme sense of ownership for this place,” Eisen said. “They are responsible for not just a grade, but for the health of animals and organisms, so if they slack off there are real consequences to it.
“It goes above and beyond just science education,” he continued. “We don’t just crank out marine biologists here; we crank out responsible students who will be able to excel in any job because they know how to take responsibility, leadership, and also learn how to follow and take orders from advisors and others students as well.”
Ladwig added that the students also develop great social skills from leading regular tours where they may teach fifth graders, parents, and sometimes teachers.
They certainly have a lot to be proud of. One of the newer exhibits is a 750-gallon shark tank, which includes two horn sharks that were hatched at the aquarium nearly 15 years ago.
The pair finally began mating this year, Eisen explained, and the first hatchling broke forth just two weeks ago, so attendees of the open house on April 21 will get to see a brand new baby horn shark.
“They’re laying more eggs too, about six so far, and they’re not always viable, but this first one did hatch,” he said. “We’re excited about that. It’s an indicator that the students are doing a great job, when our animals are breeding in captivity.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne’s fear of sharks doesn’t extend to the babies. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2016.