“One bit my knee,” shouted Jim. “And another nudged Mr. Willats!”
“Yeah, and we were snorkeling around a lot of male sea lions, which is dangerous ‘cuz they’re territorial and will kill you!” added Genny. “Oh yeah, and manta rays jumped up right next to our boat when we were riding back to the island, too!”
I had only missed two days with the students from Piedmont High School, but it seems their rigorous five day camping excursion to study ecology at Espíritu Santo Island in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez hadn’t taken any turns for the worse – in fact just the opposite. The group was in great spirits, and even smarter and funnier since when I left them.
Yes, of course they were concerned that Britney Spears had shaved her head while they were away from their online and oh-so-connected lives (some of the girls arrived with French manicures and talk about what TV shows they’d miss while they were gone and which coffee is better: Starbucks or Peet’s.), but the Piedmont High School student group – eight girls and two boys – was also proud they were taking part in something “so cool” over their annual February “ski week” vacation.
“No one really goes skiing that much anymore,” explained Claire, an inquisitive and sharp-minded senior from Mr. Willats’ AP Environmental Science class.
Teaching at Piedmont High School for almost a decade now, Mr. Willats has taken previous student groups on outdoor education adventures in Costa Rica and the Galapagos; and this year, he brought the group to Ecology Project International’s newest program in Baja California Sur to participate in local scientific research and learn about island and marine ecology.
In addition to the students, Mr. Willats also brought his telescope to encourage gazing at the sky’s stars, moon and planets. It was a new moon where only a sliver of it shone, and even that disappeared after its early moonset over the Sea of Cortez. So, the sky was especially dark for seeing the brightest stars in their constellations, and even an extra moon or two when nature called with no private bathrooms anywhere on the island.
Under the sea, the students saw stars as well – sun stars, cushion stars, even chocolate chip stars – and they assisted Ecology Project International instructors in data collection concerning species abundance and substrate.
Instead of talk of ski slopes among the students this week, most inquiries were about how we should calculate species diversity, what the best strategies for conservation are, and when we would see whales, and of course once they caught wind of the news, theories into why Britney shaved her head.
The Piedmont group flies back to San Francisco today, all the wiser and more worldly thanks to Mr. Willats.
