On September 23rd one of the state’s largest annual volunteer events happened, that being California’s very own Coastal Cleanup Day! All up and down the coast of California, volunteers were cleaning our beaches.  Right here in Torrance, those volunteers included many students from Torrance High who are enrolled in the AP Environmental Science classes.  

Torrance Beach’s cleanup was very successful since many of the people who attended finished with a good amount of litter. Around two dozen of the volunteers who attended were from Torrance High’s AP Environmental Science classes.  They came to  this event as an opportunity to complete the class’s monthly field work assignment. The purpose of  this monthly assignment is to connect what the students learn in class to the real world. It shows them real life examples of the material they learn in class while also doing something that benefits the environment.

One of the students who attended was Emery Abugan.  She said that the experience was eye-opening: “It was a great hands-on experience that helped me visualize how pollution is literally everywhere and I just never really noticed since I’m so used to it. It was also really nice seeing how many people care about keeping the beach clean.” Emery Abugan is a perfect example of how students were able to personally view what they learned in class to their very own local beach. 

Beach cleanups are a fantastic way to help clean the ocean as much as we can and to help people visualize what effect they can have on the environment. If it weren’t for beach clean-ups then most of the trash that is sadly littered all over Torrance Beach (and many other lovely beaches) would wind up in the ocean sooner or later. Once a piece of trash has ended up on the sand it becomes so easy for it to get washed away by the water.

Many of Torrance High’s lovely students got to experience exactly that. As a community, we should also remember our responsibility to clean up after ourselves to maintain a clean environment!