Project Overview

This professional-quality field guide was created by high school students at Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High in San Diego, California. It is the third in a series of commercially bound and distributed field guides created in a collaboration between Jay Vavra, biology teacher and an interdisciplinary teaching team – in this case, a mathematics and biology teacher. The students were active in Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program, and Jane Goodall has written an introduction for most of the guides in the series, including this book.

Following a field guide to the natural species of the bay – “Perspectives of San Diego Bay” – this field guide adds a new dimension by documenting the historical interaction between humans and industry with the ecology of the bay. Students researched the growth and changes in industries based in the bay, particularly hunting and fishing industries, from Native American times to the present. They were involved in historical research in archives and also in interviews with historical and industry experts. Influenced by the Jared Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, this field guide examines themes of industry, invention and change on human culture and the bay ecosystem.

Students worked with college professors, museum experts, naturalists, historians and industry leaders to get multiple perspectives in their research; they worked closely with primary sources throughout the study and include historical photos and documents in their book.

This guide, and the others in the series, stand as some of the finest examples of the potential of high school students to do professional quality work for an authentic audience.