California Coastal Commission

Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds

Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds is a classroom and community activity guide for teachers that addresses issues such as endangered species, marine debris, coastal geology, water use, and much more. It is carefully aligned to the California State Science Content Standards for grades 3 through 8, and includes “Community Action” lessons adaptable for all ages up to and beyond 12th grade. The guide is available to California educators for free from the California Coastal Commission, or it can be downloaded as a PDF.

Order a free copy of Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds.

PDF Format
Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds is available in PDF format. You may download the entire document, or download it by chapter. PDFs will open in an new window.
Please note: Due to copyright agreements, three activities are not available in the PDFs below.

• Entire Guide (6.64 MB)
• Title Page, Table of Contents, Foreword (189 KB)
• Introduction and Orientation (77 KB)
• 3rd Grade Activities (1.69 MB)
• 4th Grade Activities (783 KB)
• 5th Grade Activities (1.06 MB)
• 6th Grade Activities (799 KB)
• 7th Grade Activities (1.09 MB)
• 8th Grade Activities (796 KB)
• Community Action Activities (936 KB)
• Appendices (190 KB)

Standards
Within Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds, the applicable State Content Standards are clearly stated next to each activity. A matrix of the standards addressed in each activity is available as a downloadable PDF document, or by request. (To view the PDFs, you must have Adobe Acrobat. For information on how to download this free software, click here.)
•  3rd Grade Standards Alignment
•  4th Grade Standards Alignment
•  5th Grade Standards Alignment
•  6th Grade Standards Alignment
•  7th Grade Standards Alignment
•  8th Grade Standards Alignment

The State of California's Education and the Environment Initiative has developed a set of Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs) for elementary and secondary schools. A PDF is available showing Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds' alignment to the EP&C Learning Objectives.

Spanish Supplement
A supplement containing Spanish translations of the student handouts in Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds is now available in PDF format.
•   Spanish Language Student Handouts (1.7MB)

Upcoming Workshops for Educators
As workshops are scheduled, they will be posted here. If you would like to participate in an orientation workshop for Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds, please send an e-mail to afrankel@coastal.ca.gov which includes your contact information, as well as the name of your school or program and the grade level that you teach. Workshops are open to both formal and informal educators. If you would like to volunteer your location (e.g. school, museum, visitor center) for a workshop, please use the same contact.

Since 2003, a total of 73 workshops have been held in Alameda, Alhambra, Auburn, Berkeley, Cambria, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Castroville, Chula Vista, Eureka, Folsom, Fontana, Fort Bragg, Fremont, Guadalupe, Imperial Beach, Huntington Beach, San José, Loleta, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Marina, Newport Beach, Novato, Oakland, Oxnard, Palm Springs, Pasadena, Pescadero, Redding, Riverside, Roseville, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, San Pedro, San Rafael, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Seaside, Stockton, Suisun City, Tustin, Van Nuys, and Walnut Creek.

Extensions and Resources

• Download a Black-footed Albatross supplement to Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds focusing on this bird's life history, satellite tracking, lab-based scientific investigations and plastic pollution prevention. This supplement for grades 8 through 12 was developed by Oikonos-Ecosystem Knowledge.
• Download a four-page primer on coastal bluff erosion, containing informative diagrams and vocabulary for further investigation into coastal processes.
• For advanced students, use a webpage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal Services Center to investigate three alternatives for developing a coastal site. The scenarios presented allow students to explore the specifics of each development plan and to consider the environmental and economic consequences of the choices.
• For advanced students, download a factsheet from the California Water and Land Use Partnership to learn how urbanization affects the water cycle.
• Take part in Coastal Cleanup Day or Adopt-A-Beach.
• Take the Coastal Stewardship Pledge and download the Coastal Steward Class Pledge.
• Browse the Marine, Coastal & Watershed Resource Directory for educational resources and for volunteer and internship opportunities.
• Visit our "How Can I Help?" web page for additional resources.
• Check out our "For Youth" page for web-based activities.
• Share your comments about Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds.

Errata
A page of corrections and updates (in PDF) for Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds is now available. This errata sheet should be used for the books with a black wire binding, copyright 2003.