Vernal Pools Informational Text: Read and Understand!
The emphasis on reading and understanding informational texts in classrooms mirrors our efforts in science at the Lake Superior NERR. These readings are based on real scientific efforts in the Lake Superior Watershed, and include questions to check for understanding. This reading on vernal pools is great for springtime and is derived from an article in the Duluth News Tribune, April 2016.
Lake Superior Geology Informational Text: Read and Understand!
The emphasis on reading and understanding informational texts in classrooms mirrors our efforts in science at the Lake Superior NERR. These readings are based on real scientific efforts in the Lake Superior Watershed, and include questions to check for understanding. This text on geology includes a timeline of the formation of Lake Superior.
Macroinvertebrate Informational Text: Read and Understand!
The emphasis on reading and understanding informational texts in classrooms mirrors our efforts in science at the Lake Superior NERR. These readings are based on real scientific efforts in the Lake Superior Watershed, and include questions to check for understanding. This short text includes pictures of commonly found aquatic macroinvertebrates.
Savanna Portage: Readers Theater
The Savanna Portage was the crucial link between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. Its discovery and usage created an interesting and important mix of cultures between Native Americans, Voyageurs, fur trading companies, and other explorers.
Formation of Lake Superior
Students will put on a play to go through the steps of how Lake Superior formed by rifting of the Minnesota shore from the Wisconsin shore, erosion of mountains that were created from the rifting, and filling of the rift zone. Optional: discuss how the formations of Lake Superior also resulted in the formation of the different types of igneous (volcanic, from rifting and volcanic activity) and sedimentary (from sedimentation, or build up, of sediments from eroded mountains and other rocks) rocks we find in Lake Superior.
Sum of the Rivers
Students will see maps of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River to compare the sizes. Students will then each draw a portion of either the St. Louis River or a river near their school that flows into the St. Louis River or Lake Superior. They will make connections that every part of the river can impact the health of the rest of the river and of Lake Superior.
Guess that Animal!
Students will work in teams to read about an animal that lives in the St. Louis River Estuary. They will then work together to draw and name the animal that they think the description describes. This allows students to become familiar with animals that could be present around their school or homes that live in the estuary while also learning valuable lessons in team work.
Online Resources for Data, Kits, Information and More!
The curriculum attached is actually a list of websites you can find useful for you and your students. Some of the websites will give you access to data that you can give to your students, other websites (like the WI DNR EEK!! website) provides information that your students can use (and is age appropriate for elementary/middle school). Other websites provide great kits or other resources.
Keep the Water Clean!
Students will learn about different types of pollution that can be present in water, ways those types of pollution can be handled, what Areas of Concerns are, and what can be done to clean up (and keep clean) Areas of Concerns in the St. Louis River Estuary.
Making a Watershed!
This lesson outline and PowerPoint guide you and your students through learning about watersheds by making your own! Students will make their own landscape and hypothesize where water and land are on their landscape. They can add places of human activity and predict what will happen to their watershed when it "rains"! This is a fun, short activity that can be extended to emphasize key ideas. The Enviroscape from the Great Lakes Aquarium is optional but very useful for this lesson!
