A River Runs Through It: Connecting the Communities of the Arroyo Seco

In October 2002, 30 teachers from communities along the Arroyo Seco and other parts of Southern California participated in A River Runs Through It: Connecting the Communities of the Arroyo Seco, a special weekend workshop on how to integrate study of the Arroyo Seco in the K-12 school curriculum.

This special teacher training hosted by the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, in conjunction with the Southwest Museum, the Lummis Home and Garden and the Debs Park Audubon Center, is part of ArroyoFest’s ongoing effort to support place-based education -- education that uses the local landscape, history and community life as the touchstone for teaching and learning.

This past spring the workshop expanded to two weekends, allowing 20 additional teachers the opportunity to learn about these subjects in more depth, hear from panels of fellow educators and have in-depth discussions about how to promote the study of the Arroyo at the their school.

Initiated in 1999 by teachers Carmela Gomes and Janice Rodriguez, with help from the Southwest Museum, “A River Runs Through It” has received support from the Metropolitan Water District’s Community Partners Program.

View the on-line version of the Resource Guide that accompanies the workshop.

Teachers listen as Darryl Ramos-Young of the Debs Park Audubon Center describes Debs Park -- a resource for both people and wildlife that is largely unknown, even to those who live nearby.

Carmela Gomes of Nightingale Middle School and Janice Rodriguez of Luther Burbank Middle School, facilitated this workshop for the fourth time with help from the Southwest Museum and Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College.

Facilitators Jan Rodriquez and Carmela Gomes help workshop attendants brainstorm ideas to connect the Arroyo Seco to the classroom.


Participants tour the historic Lummis Home and Gardens, learning about drought-tolerant, native plants, photo windows and other eccentric aspects of the home that Charles Lummis built from Arroyo stone to last a thousand years.


Teachers present their ideas at the end of an information-packed two days.