Middle & High School Field Trips to Resume Fall 2026
For Spring 2026, field trip reservations will be limited to K–6 teachers. Program updates are underway to renew middle and high school field trip experiences and remove the requirement of teacher trainings for participation. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to improve our programs and increase accessibility for all educators.
Tijuana Estuary High School Teacher's Guide
Grades 6-12
The Tijuana Estuary High School Teachers’ Guide is an interdisciplinary high school curriculum designed to educate students about the valuable Tijuana River Estuary natural and cultural resources. It was developed to align to State Content Standards and it is one of the few high school field-based estuary science programs in the county. The target audiences of the Teachers’ Guide are the biology, ecology, marine science, English, and art students and teachers in San Diego County, especially South Bay.
The Curriculum
The following pdf files make up the Tijuana Estuary High School Teachers’ Guide, they include both the chapters and lesson plans to be done in the classroom and also the field trip guide for programs done here at the Reserve which are based upon the knowledge gained in the classroom portions of the teacher’s guide. Please be sure to read the introduction first to get a better understanding of how to use this curriculum:
Introduction & Chapters
Language Arts Lessons
Field Trips & Additional Resources
Estuaries 101
To complement the Tijuana Estuary High School Teachers’ Guide, we recommend using our national program’s Estuaries 101 Curriculum. This on-line science curriculum from NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System, provides powerful ways for students to learn fundamental concepts in science, develop scientific thinking skills, and explore the nation’s biologically rich and economically important estuaries. Estuaries 101 modules feature hands-on learning, experiments, field-based activities and data explorations.