O'Neill Sea Odyssey

By providing a free, hands-on, marine science and outdoor education program, O'Neill Sea Odyssey will:
• Help schools reach National Science and Mathematics Education Standards through outdoor education curricula aligned with NOAA's (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's) Ocean Literacy Essential Principals and Fundamental Concepts.
• Encourage environmental stewardship and leadership skills among low income, at risk and underserved youth through community service.
• Improve environmentally responsible behaviors (ERB's) among low income, at risk and underserved youth.
• Improve the health and viability of urban watersheds, wetlands and schools by promoting community service.

The curriculum is taught in a stimulating and intimate learning environment, which provides a learning experience that lasts a lifetime. The program's curriculum is designed to support the educational goals of the schools that participate, and each of the subjects taught align with both California state and federal education standards.

Hands-on activities, teaching to the different intelligences, and scaffolding new language for meaning are widely accepted teaching methods currently encouraged within education. OSO utilizes the hands-on teaching method, and activities to educate and inspire youth towards a life of stewardship. Hands-on learning in smaller group settings scaffolds vocabulary, increases participation by English learners, demonstrates academic subject matter in an engaging manner, and integrates academic subjects in an exciting learning environment. Verbal, visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners are all educated through this hands-on approach to science. OSO introduces new vocabulary to both native English speakers and English learners. The use of scientific terminology builds vocabulary and helps to further youth's educational goals in the area of literacy.

O'Neill Sea Odyssey has been providing this service for 20 years, conducting lessons on board the catamaran with follow-up lessons at the shore-side Education Center at the Santa Cruz Harbor. It is free of charge, but students earn their way into the program by designing and performing a project to benefit their community. O'Neill Sea Odyssey also raises funds for bus transportation for lower-income schools, and our in-class curriculum is being distributed nationally as of 2016.

OSO was founded in 1996. In 1999, Tom and Judy Webster established the Adam Webster Memorial Fund for special needs youth. Jack O'Neill and Harry Hind donated the O'Neill Building to OSO in 2000, to provide a shore-side education center and some revenue for the program. In 2003 OSO published a curriculum handbook including a chart with alignment to California State and Federal content standards, and distributed it nationally in collaboration with the national marine sanctuary program. OSO received the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in 2004, the same year that $1.3 million in donor funds re-build upstairs of the O'Neill building with OSO education center, elevator, disabled access, and Surfrider Foundation water quality lab, while the downstairs reverted to the Santa Cruz Harbor. In 2006 OSO began paying for bus transportation for lower income schools, received Senator Barbara Boxer's Environmental Champion award and installed its weather station and integrated it into its curriculum. In 2008 OSO installed its solar system for its education center and the Surfrider Foundation.
In 2009 the Adam Webster Memorial Fund received the Community Spinners award, and in 2012 OSO's curriculum was aligned to Ocean Literacy principles and distributed throughout California. The Silicon Valley Business Journal's Community Impact Award was received in 2013 and the study of our program's long term impact on students was completed. In 2014 OSO's curriculum was aligned to Common Core & Next Generation Science Standards.

Having served 85,000 students, our organization is on track to achieve a total of 100,000 total students served by 2018, according to our 2013-2018 Five Year Strategic Plan. During last school year, OSO served 5,519 students in 207 classrooms. In 2015 OSO completed its transition from paper and clipboard collection of data on Monterey Bay to the use of iPads and a custom app, and has also filmed three classes and subsequently produced a “virtual program" for schools that cannot physically get to our location but can benefit from the program. In September, 2016, in-class, Common Core and Next Generations Science Standards curriculum will be distributed nationally via the Pepper College Readiness Network.

O'Neill Sea Odyssey's Board of Directors approved a new, five-year strategic for 2014 through 2018. The plan includes the following goals:

• In 2018 100,000 students had been served and our goal by the end of 2018 is to have served 100,000 students with our hands-on, ocean going education program.

• Continue to increase environmental stewardship and advocacy among youth through our hands-on ocean education program combined with our promotion of ocean science curriculum and watershed concepts in classrooms, especially for inland schools.

• Achieve financial sustainability through endowment & building.
• Using O'Neill Sea Odyssey's success as a model, continue to advocate for outdoor, hands-on environmental education.