Head Start partnership inspires learning and connection

“Where is the octopus? ¿Dónde está el pulpo?”

Ten preschool children sit around a large circular parachute, their family members watching behind them. Kristy Markowitz (she/her/ella), a senior bilingual education specialist at the Aquarium, leads the students through a call-and-response song, alternating between Spanish and English, which ends with a question: “Where is the octopus? ¿Dónde está el pulpo?”

The adults lift the blue parachute high into the air, revealing wavy strands of green cloth representing the kelp forest underneath. On each strand flutters a card depicting a marine animal. The two children who had been seated next to pulpo cards on the top of the parachute squeal and crawl underneath. They scurry around among the “kelp forest” looking for the animal in question. Soon one child yells, “I found it! I found the octopus!” The other students and parents cheer, and then everyone returns to their places around the parachute to begin the next verse of the song and the search for a new animal.

The students and their guardians are part of our Splash Zone Head Start program, one of the longest running education programs the Aquarium can offer free of charge, thanks to the generosity of our members and donors.

Strong relationships support learning

Done in partnership with about 50 Head Start Learning Centers from across Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, the program serves roughly 1,000 students, plus their families and teachers each year. This important partnership provides experiences that connect Head Start students, their families, and teachers to the Aquarium and to the ocean. By engaging both parents and students in learning together, in English and Spanish, the program aims to build connections at the cultural root.

“When you think about it, most academic spaces in this country are in English. Imagine all the things you learn in school—and not being able to tell your parents about them,” said the Aquarium's vice president for education, Dr. Jenny de la Hoz (she/her/ella and affectionately known as Dr. J), emphasizing the value of this shared experience in a county where more than 62 percent of all students are bilingual.

Quality time spent together at the Aquarium is a treasured experience for both the students and their adults, and the program is designed to help everyone make the most of their visit.

More than a one-off visit

To ensure that everyone feels comfortable, knows what to expect, and can focus on the shared learning that matters most, the Splash Zone Head Start program includes four components. First, Aquarium educators visit the Head Start Centers to introduce the students to the ocean themes, animals and habitats they will encounter when they arrive at the Aquarium. Next, we participate in family workshops to help parents and caregivers connect with and support their students before, during and after the Aquarium visit. We also collaborate with Head Start teachers so they can extend their students’ science learning in the classroom. Finally, each group participates in an Aquarium visit that begins with a one-hour bilingual program led by an Aquarium educator (and sometimes featuring a parachute) followed by time for the group to explore the Aquarium at their own pace.

"In my work with the Splash Zone Head Start programs, I am constantly moved by the "awe" moments I get to witness. It fills me with joy to watch little faces light up as they touch a hermit crab, watch penguins swim, or simply walk into the Aquarium for the first time. For many of these students and their families, this is their first Aquarium visit and sharing that experience with their families and teachers I know is something that many of them will cherish forever," says Markowitz.

Growing together

The Splash Zone Head Start program began in 2001, started by Guada Perez and Therese Treuenfels. Dr. J came on board the following year—back then her title was community partnerships manager. The newly opened Splash Zone exhibit provided opportunities for families with young children to learn together at the Aquarium—and the partnership with Head Start helped the Aquarium’s team learn about engaging the community in a pro-cultural way, an influence that has carried over into the Aquarium’s other education programs and its desire to continue to develop bilingual exhibits and experiences for guests.

“Working with Head Start allows us to go into the center with a mindset that we have stuff to learn from the local community,” said Dr. J. “We see the richness of the community’s internal resources—the resiliency, gratitude, love, concern, and abundance of desire for good—and that gives us information about how to do ocean conservation in a way we haven’t tapped into yet fully.”

They began with just eight Head Start sites in Salinas and on the Monterey Peninsula. As the education team worked to expand offerings to more distant centers across the two counties, they had to work with the Head Start Centers to solve challenges like how to transport the groups to the Aquarium—because it can be hard for preschoolers to be on a bus for very long. (Thankfully, the Aquarium’s bussing partner, Discovery Charters, helped streamline this process. The Aquarium also provides transportation for the visits, free of charge.)

The pandemic brought an additional set of challenges, but thanks to the longevity and strength of the partnership with Head Start, the program was able to adapt to a Zoom-only format before returning to in-person sessions again this year.

Long-term results

The program has existed long enough that those first pre-schoolers to participate are now early career professionals, some of whom still recall the impact of an early childhood visit to the Aquarium. Dr. J recalled being greeted by a young teacher at a conference who had first visited the Aquarium through the Splash Zone Head Start program. Another former WATCH student is now a Head Start teacher who brings her classes to the Aquarium for the Splash Zone program.

Support from Aquarium members and donors helps the Aquarium invest in relationships like the one we’ve enjoyed with Head Start for more than 20 years. This investment pays off when we see a Head Start parent and child connect with each other and the ocean during a visit, as well as when our programs can flex and adapt as the situation demands, as we did during the pandemic. And when we see former students draw on these experiences later in life, we know the depth of the impact we’ve had.