Environmental Volunteers, Palo Alto

Squeals fill the room as children uncover beetles and worms. Although digging through mud isn't a standard classroom activity, this class is learning about microelements at the bottom of the food chain. And the kids get to get their hands dirty. In an interview with Palo Alto Online, Environmental Volunteers' Executive Director Allan Berkowitz explained that classroom lessons should move away from traditional lectures. Instead, he wants “kids to touch and taste and smell their way to science education."

To that end, Environmental Volunteers leads hands-on activities in nine natural-science subjects including Baylands ecology, energy and natural resources, and Nature in your Neighborhood. Every year, Environmental Volunteers conducts 90-minute classroom programs—where kids learn how Native Americans respected the environment or simulate earthquakes with an electric shake table—lead two-hour follow-up field trips, and host summer day camps to teach 10,000 children across the region. The organization also runs a nature center for the public that teaches about the natural world from its location in the Baylands Nature Preserve. For those who can’t make it, a webcam shows a 24/7 view of the marshes outside the center on San Francisco Bay.

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