Becca VanArnam Accepted for 2025 Delta Science Fellowship

Congratulations to Becca VanArnam, 2024-2025 Citizen Science in Conservation (CCSiC) Fellow and Ph.D. student in Science and Agricultural Education, on being awarded a 2025 Delta Science Fellowship! This program, funded by California Sea Grant and in collaboration with agency partners such as the Delta Stewardship Council, assists researchers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. The need for research on the delta is urgent for a multitude of reasons – it is a vital socio-ecological system, surrounded by and incorporated into crucial agricultural land. The delta is also home to a variety of fragile ecosystems at risk from threats like agricultural runoff and tunneling. Unfortunately, local communities around the delta and the surrounding valley often lack access to education, especially culturally relevant material, about this environment. This gap needs to be assessed, and Becca is taking action to bridge it.

Becca’s project, titled “Bridging Science and Community: Engaging Youth in Delta Conservation through the Spinning Salmon Program” examines how collaboration between researchers, teachers, and students shapes engagement with science. The Spinning Salmon Program connects local classrooms to their ecosystem while partnering them with researchers addressing the ecological challenge of Thiamine Deficiency Complex affecting Central Valley Chinook Salmon. Becca will investigate how students and teachers engage with science when actively participating in this program collaborating with researchers contributing to real-world data collection. Insights from this first phase of research will inform a co-designed iteration of the program, where Becca and teachers work together ensuring cultural relevance, breaking down language barriers, and better supporting student needs. These changes will then be implemented for another iteration of the program, where classroom engagement with science will once again be assessed.