818-597-8627 info@rcdsmm.org

Malibu Lagoon State Beach Education Program

Teacher Resources

We are excited that you and your students will be visiting Malibu Lagoon State Beach!

This web page has been created to help you prepare your students for the field trip and facilitate a more meaningful experience. Please feel free to share any of these resources with your families so they can also learn more about our coast. 

Preparing Your Student Scientists

Malibu Lagoon Slideshow

Malibu Slideshow

Use this slideshow before students visit Malibu Lagoon for their field trip to give them an introduction & overview of the program.

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Plant Flashcards

Plant Flashcards

This set of flashcards will help students become familiar with individual plant species they may see at Malibu Lagoon.

Here’s a link to classroom activities you can complete using flashcards.  

Animal Flashcards

Animal Flashcards

This set of flashcards will help students become familiar with bird & fish they may see at Malibu Lagoon.

Here’s a link to classroom activities you can complete using flashcards. 

Water Quality Flashcards

Water Quality Flashcards

This set of flashcards will help students understand how & why we conduct water quality tests at the lagoon.

Here’s a link to classroom activities you can complete using flashcards.   

Online Games

Discover Water with ProjectWET

Puruse this suite of virtual water related science activities brought to you by our partners at ProjectWET. Activities include learning about the water cycle, tips for conserving water, exploring local aquatic critters and more. Click here to explore!

Mission Migration

Malibu Lagoon is part of the Pacific Flyway. Part of the field program includes birdwatching. Take this quiz to figure out the various challenges birds face as they attempt to migrate to different parts of the world to survicve and thrive. Click here to take this quiz and help your bird migrate safely.

Recycle City

Here is the EPAs Recycle City online game. It focuses on waste, pollution, and personal actions to reduce your own impact. Click here to play!

NASA Climate Kids

Learn all about the causes of air pollution and what that means for our climate. Explore NASA Climate Kids here. 

Helpful Videos

This quick video gives a great and succinct description of a watershed so your students can begin to understand this complex idea. 

This Ocean Literacy video (in Spanish with English subtitles) is a great tool for teaching students and families why being ocean literate is important! 

Give your students a more in depth overview of wetlands, their function and their importance with this long form video. 

Take a tour of Malibu Lagoon with RCD Educator, Isaac and learn about some of the coastal birds that live there!

Other Resources

Explore Beaches by UCSB

a great resource to help you understand our beaches. This site really helps students see how sand movement works and why the berm is sometimes open and sometimes closed. Each of the links to the right of the page connect well to our Malibu Lagoon program. 

iNaturalist

iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you. By recording and sharing your observations, you’ll create research quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.

eBird

eBird is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by eBirders around the world. eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework.

Fish Anatomy

While at Malibu Lagoon, students will be looking at fish in jars. This link provides an image with the external parts of a fish.

Preparing Your Chaperones

The chaperones who volunteer to be a part of the Malibu Lagoon field trip become facilitators for the overall experience your students have on this trip. Prepare them by sharing the information on this web page so they can increase learning opportunities by helping foster curiosity in the field, focus observations, and facilitate questions or conversation.

We do not expect chaperones to be experts in estuary science and chaperones are always welcome to ask questions of the educators leading groups. Please keep in mind that chaperones are responsible for the behavior and safety of the students. Malibu Lagoon is a State Park where the general public is welcome and present so it is important for students to be on good behavior.

We hope that after your visit, families will want to return to Malibu Lagoon. Send families this flyer about Malibu Lagoon (in English and Spanish) to prepare them for your visit.

Post Field Trip Activities

School Yard Cleanup

A school yard cleanup is a great way for students to connect actions in the upper watershed with the lagoon and the ocean. The trash that ends up on the ground at school will eventually end up in the ocean. California Coastal Commission’s School Yard Cleanup site is a great resource. You will find some really great information and lots of links to how this project fits with NGSS.

Plan a Cleanup!

Interactive Post Trip Ocean Lesson

The Smithsonian has great resources for educators about various ocean topics at the Ocean Find Your Blue wesbite. Topics that tie in well with the Malibu Lagoon field trip are climate change, sea level rise, and fisheries.

Explore Now!

Plastic Pollution Challenge

The Plastic Pollution Coalition put together a games and activities page to connect plastic pollution to ocean health. Ask students to make connections to Malibu Lagoon (what kind of trash did they see on the beach or in the water during the field trip) and create a challenge to see how much plastic they use in one week and how they can reduce their impact the following week.

Take the Challenge!

Directions to Malibu Lagoon State Beach:

23500 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265

If you are headed west on Pacific Coast Highway, away from Los Angeles, turn left onto Cross Creek Road [NOT at the Adamson House]. You will be turning into the parking lot of Malibu Lagoon State Beach, marked with a star on the map.

If you are headed east on PCH, towards Los Angeles, turn right onto Cross Creek Rd from PCH.