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Scientific Monitoring

Students here at KEEP Cambria are involved in a variety of scientific survey projects. Surveying is an important skill often used when studying a given animal or plant population. Survey projects can show total population numbers, distribution by size and gender, and typical behaviours. Looked at over time, these surveys can show fluctuations in populations caused by seasonal changes, weather, habitat changes, and human actions.

Raptor Count: On the trip to Morro Bay, students learn to identify various raptors and keep a daily population count over an 18 mile stretch of highway between Cambria and Morro Bay. This data is recorded on a chart, allowing students to see how the populations fluctuate week to week. Here we show these counts compiled and averaged over the last three years.

Tidepool Monitoring: During days with particularly low tides, students lay out grids to survey tidepool populations including ochre stars, acorn barnacles, limpets, shore crabs, and rockweed. This data is compiled at the end of each year and turned in to the State Park Service to help track the impact of human traffic on the Moonstone tidepools.

Elephant Seal Surveys: The seasonally available elephant seal hike presents a spectacular opportunity for students to observe and document marine mammal behavior. Students, shown here, view the entire beach to count males, females, and pups, draw a map of the area to determine harem locations, and make up a list of the most common behaviors of the seals laying out on the beach.

Weather Reporting: Every morning, a group of students learn how to read and use a variety of weather gauges including thermometers, a barometer, and a rain gauge. They use the information they collect to create a weather forecast for the day. The group presents this information to the entire camp before going out on their hikes.

Food Waste Chart: Each evening, after dinner, students scrape all of their uneaten food off their plates into a "food waste" bucket. The contents are then weighed and graphed to give students an idea of how much food is wasted each night. Over the course of the week, students are encouraged to decrease their total amount of food waste. Tables with no food waste are encouraged with awards. So far this year, our lowest food waste total was from Del Rio, Carden, and Pine Mountain Schools. They had less than 3.4 lbs of food waste all week! scientificmonitoring: Students at KEEP recording field data on Elephant Seals

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