Utilizing the Lake Superior watershed and the St. Louis River as a foundation for learning
Students will discover the importance of Manoomin to the region and uncover a mystery about who has been eating the wetland plant. The Curriculum download is a PowerPoint slideshow teaching guide that has all the links you need to run the lesson with your class.
Students will discover the relationship between Lake Superior temperatures and algae growth. Lesson resources are linked in the teaching guide. Curriculum download is a Powerpoint slide deck with links to all the resources you need to run this lesson with your class.
Students will investigate a variety of resources to formulate a hypothesis regarding how Rusty Crayfish arrived in the St. Louis River. The curriculum download is a ZIP file containing all the PDF documents needed to run this lesson with a learners of a variety of ages.
Students will learn about the different ways animals survive in the winter through reading about animal adaptations and doing class presentations about some of the animals that live in or near aquatic environments. Students will also have the opportunity to create their own animals and come up with habitats and winter adaptations for those creations. The curriculum download is a PDF that includes the lesson plan, student sheets, and a student reading sheet. The supporting file is a PDF with images of common animals found in northern MN/WI and their winter adaptations.
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. The curriculum download is a PDF of this informational reader.
Where it was, where it is today, and how we can ensure it will be here in the future. Students will analyze the effects of predators, sulfate levels, and neglectful human practices on manoomin (Ojibwemowin language for “wild rice”). Students will learn about the life cycle of manoomin and traditional harvest methods. They will observe change over time in the St. Louis River Estuary by comparing a satellite image of the St. Louis River Estuary with a historical hand drawn map of the same area to see where wild rice has historically been found. Finally, they will be presented with real life scientific data affecting manoomin growth today. Students will apply reading, writing, group work, and inquiry-based scientific methods to solve the mysteries presented to them.
Attached is a short lesson with data and graphs (for students to compare since the X axis aligns). This is data from the Nemadji River for river flow as well as corresponding rainfall. This will compare baseline data with the flood data from 2012. Includes worksheet to guide students through the analysis. The curriculum download is a PDF including the lesson plan and data set. The supporting file is the student worksheet.
Students will understand that the shore line of Lake Superior used to be longer in the past. Students will understand the geology changes the lay out of the land over time. The curriculum download is a PDF of the lesson plan to run this activity.
Students will participate in a hike around their local nature space/place and make observations about what is happening in that natural place. They will try to answer questions like, ‘What is new?’ ‘What is different?’ ‘What has changed?’ The curriculum download is a PDF of the lesson plan.
In this lesson, students do a field study on the great variety of seeds on their school grounds. They use the "wool sock" collection method, hand lenses, and microscopes. The main line of inquiry is "How are seeds dispersed?", but opportunities abound for lesson extension. The curriculum download is a PDF that includes the lesson plan and student data collection sheet. The supporting file is a PDF document about seed dispersal from Cornell University.