Lincoln Elementary School - Olympia, Washington

Introduction
Salmon Education to Curb Polarization
 
At our hands and before our eyes, populations of Pacific Salmon are declining. Many of us know that some species are already gone and not coming back. Most of us don't know what we can do to help sustain the species that remain. We are overwhelmed by the complexity of the problem. Many lives affect and are affected by the existence of Pacific Salmon. We are intimidated by the idea that many types of people, with varied interests in the survival of salmon, would have to come together to start forming solutions.

In association with The Face of Salmon program at The Evergreen State College, we have been given the opportunity to work with a group of 8-10 year old children at a local elementary school. These children already have a grasp on the salmon life cycle and the role that salmon play in the ecosystem.

One significant inhibitor to progress concerning the well being of our salmon populations is polarization of opinions. Our project works to encourage children to understand opposing viewpoints. We invite children to think about some of the diverse perspectives that surround salmon: the fishers, loggers, farmers, Native Americans, and the salmon themselves. By doing so, we hope to transfer the children from a path that leads to polarization, to one that leads to understanding, empathy, and a willingness to compromise. The children will use the critical thinking and mediation skills that they will need in order to approach complex problems, such as the salmon crisis.

We've put together an agenda that spans four visits (one and a half hours each). During these visits, the children will consider, within a small group, one of the viewpoints concerning salmon, and share what they've learned with their classmates through drawings and skits. During our final visit, we will give the children a chance to consider the ways that salmon are important to each of them. A detailed description is given in the agenda area.

This project aims to prompt children to consider all of the lives that affect and are affected by salmon as well as to consider how as individuals we are each responsible for and connected to salmon. We've used the resources that are available to us to discover what we can about each of these perspectives. In some cases, we were able to draw information from personal interviews, and in some cases, we were required to depend on the written word. We do not intend to tie any of these perspectives to any set of opinions exclusively. Our intention is to begin a thought process that will lead to understanding and empathy for each of these viewpoints.

Who We Are
We are a group of six college students who have been given the opportunity to educate a sector of our community about the fate of salmon.
Our Goals

1. We hope to work towards positive change in a non-political way.

2. We are each looking to gain a personal understanding of how salmon are important to many people and to be able to share that understanding with our community.

3. We also hope to reinforce our personal connection to salmon.

The Face of Salmon program at The Evergreen State College has given us a background in salmon ecology and in the politics that are associated with the decline of salmon. Similarly, the children that we were fortunate enough to work with at Lincoln Elementary School have been given a strong base of knowledge on salmon ecology and life cycle and on the relationship between salmon and Northwest Coastal Native American tribes. This project is a next step. It provides an avenue through which we can direct our knowledge towards positive change. This project provides a lens through which we could view our past and future learning.

Our group: Summer Anderson, Abigale Beeley, Ryan Gross, Claudine Reynolds, Annie Roberts, and Dobora Schwartz with cooperation and support from Michi Thacker and her eight to nine year olds at Lincoln Elementary School as well as our professors Chris May and Nancy Parkes Turner.