Media Coverage: http://www.paloaltopulse.com/2015/06/18/baylands-article/

The Beginning

Exploring the Issue
​During the second semester of seventh grade (January-May 2014), Sakshi took a Marine Biology course at her middle school, as she has always enjoyed spending time at beaches and learning more about the species local to their ecosystem. The course further sparked her interest in marine species such as whales, and species local to tide pools. However, the group of animals she was most fascinated by were, unfortunately, endangered.

​At the beginning of eighth grade, when the requirements of a Silver Award project were detailed out, and how it should have a long-lasting impact on the community, the first thought that crossed her mind—she must ​do something about endangered species. Soon, she started exploring and researching about the problem of the endangered species.

Addressing the Issue

​Instead of being unaware about this pressing global situation, Sakshi decided that people should recognize that there are numerous animals and plants in her local San Francisco Bay Area community in California, that have been living altered, substandard lives due to daily human actions that affect a lot of Earth’s life everyday.

The San Francisco  Bay Area is home  to several environmentalist organizations. Though most of them were staff-run, organizations such as Acterra, Save the Bay and the Environmental Volunteers appreciated help from teen volunteers.


​Sakshi started approaching these organizations to discover how she, a teenager, could make a difference and help endangered species in Palo Alto, and California.
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While researching, Sakshi found that there were 41,415 endangered species! She learned this from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation
​statu​s on biological plants and animals.

However, people mostly think of the Giant Pandas of Asia or the African Elephants when they hear the word ‘endangered’.
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​Despite the numerous avenues available to help several endangered species, many individuals believe that the only way to help was to donate money to the cause. This results in a community that either donates money to well-advertised causes on the other side of the world, or helplessly does nothing at all.
​​

Sakshi's Silver Award: Part I

She soon learned that the Environmental Volunteers—a local environmental organization—had outdated educational exhibits on tidepool inhabitants, and the staff wanted to replace them. Sakshi then presented a new theme for the exhibits—local endangered species—and offered to design and create the exhibits.
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The first part of her project—the Baylands EcoCenter Endangered Species Exhibits—consisted of creating educational exhibits that educated on the lifestyle, habitat, and challenges faced by four local endangered species, at the Palo Alto EcoCenter (the Environmental Volunteers' office and learning center). The exhibits also detailed how communities could help save these species through small changes in our daily lives.
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​The exhibits' focus were the Ridgway's Rail, Eastern and Western Monarch Butterflies, the Fountain Thistle and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse.  ​​

Sakshi's Silver Award: Part II

The second part of Sakshi's project entailed her planning, advertising and executing an educational event at the EcoCenter—called the Save our Species Exhibition on June 14, 2015—that inaugurated the hands-on, educational exhibits, and drew people from all over the Bay Area. To make this event more interesting, Sakshi also invited guest speakers—rangers from the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge and Jan Pitcher, an artist who paints and educates kids on endangered species—to bring their materials and information. She was interviewed by the Palo Alto Pulse on her project at the Exhibition.

An article was written http://www.paloaltopulse.com/2015/06/18/baylands-article/

The exhibits still educate hundreds of EcoCenter visitors today.