Elena Martin

ELENA PRECIADO MARTIN is an Oceanographer in the desert and a life-long Tucsonan. She believes that no matter where you live or who you are, you are connected to the ocean. Her passion is empowering youth to know their planet by providing them with opportunities to gain a sense of place through scientific inquiry, personal reflection, art and community action. For over 25 years she has been a science teacher, and environmental educator, guiding high school and college students to become keen observers, to ask questions and to deepen their knowledge of the world around them through research and exploration. Her favorite place to teach is in the field with a notebook in hand for observations, sketching and poetry.

Elena earned her BA in Biology and Spanish at Amherst College, her PhD in Biological Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, and her Secondary School Teaching Certification from Pima Community College. She has taught for Columbia University at the Biosphere 2 (Earth Semester), Prescott College at the Kino Bay Field Station, Pima Community College’s self-paced Biology learning lab and TUSD’s alternative education programs at Project MORE and ArtWorks. Most recently, she spent 13 years teaching Marine Science, Biology and Environmental Science at Tucson High Magnet School, where she helped establish and direct the school Sustainability Garden Club.

At Mission Garden, Elena is a volunteer caretaker of the Mexican Garden and does education outreach. She loves learning how to grow and harvest traditional foods in the desert in an ever changing climate, and sharing her fascination with the microscopic world of plankton in a drop of acequia water with adults and children alike. When she isn’t teaching she celebrates her bi-cultural Mexican-American/Irish-American roots with family through food, music and dance, playing her flute for Contra Dances and in the band “Grupo Tradiciones.” Vámonos!

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