‘We Ourselves Set this Problem in Motion, Let’s Help Save the Orcas of the Ocean,’ a project of the Mount Madonna School (MMS) fifth grade class, has won First Place in the environmental Class Challenge at the Santa Cruz Earth Day celebration on April 18. The students were presented with $300 prize for their First Place finish. 
San Francisco, CA — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that the 2013-14 fifth grade class at Mount Madonna School in Watsonville, Calif. will receive the President’s Environmental Youth Award for their work to fight environmental threats faced by California sea turtles. The awards are presented each year to exceptional students and teachers who demonstrate creativity, innovation, and leadership to address difficult environmental challenges.
Mount Madonna, CA, April 2015 — The fifth grade class at Mount Madonna School (MMS) was recently awarded a Disney Friends for Change Youth Grant through Youth Service America (YSA).
Mount Madonna School’s f
Read More
‘Passengers, please direct your attention out of the plane’s right side windows,’ said enthusiastic ‘flight attendant’ and Mount Madonna School (MMS) first grade teacher Cassia Laffin to her students. ‘In the distance, reaching 19,341 feet you can see Mount Kilimanjaro! And, over there, winding for thousands of miles, the remarkable Nile River!
Fifth grade students have started a petition to eliminate the use of plastic microbeads in body care products. 
On a recent day in The Factory, Mount Madonna School third grade students created small robot designs and added lights with small circuits made from an LED, a button-cell battery and conductive paint.
Next, using their original designs as circuit diagrams, students make larger scale versions of their robots on paper, and used copper tape, colored LEDs, button-cell batteries and on-off switches.
On Tuesday, Mount Madonna School (MMS) Pre/K, fifth and ninth grade students trekked quite far to reach the mouth of the Pajaro River. The group spent nearly two hours cleaning up along the river mouth and nearby beach, and collected 44 pounds of trash, including a tire and an old TV! 
On February 20, the fifth grade class presented to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. They asked the council to consider changing the current “recommendation” of a 50-yard boating distance from whales in the Monterey Bay to a 100-yard law.
