Big Floods, Big Lake (flooding)
What causes Lake Superior flooding? By taking a look at evidence from the flood of 2016 in the Twin Ports area and learning about the characteristics of floods, the mystery will be solved. Curriculum download is a PowerPoint slideshow teaching guide with links to all you need to do the lesson with your class.
Can a fish pay for your college education?
This lesson will guide students through learning about Lake Whitefish, a valuable fish for commercial fishermen, and how climate and profit impacts fishermen’s livelihood. Students will learn facts about whitefish, learn about local fishing businesses, and apply what they’ve learned using economics to decide whether their business can continue to stay open with different scenarios. Curriculum download is a PDF lesson to run this with your class. Supporting file download is a PDF document with fact cards and question cards all about whitefish and fishing in the region.
Comparing Different Cultures: Are we really that different?
The objective is for students to understand that human cultures all have common threads. The Curriculum download is a PDF version of the lesson plan to run this with your class.
Eat Your Wetlands!
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.
Flooded! Using data to understand a changing Lake Superior
Did you wake up in July of 2016 during a thunderstorm and the next morning see images of flooded Wisconsin rivers in the news? Floods like these could have a big impact on the Lake Superior of the future. Take a look at play-by-play data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service and US Geological Survey to help you and your students make sense of big picture impacts to our watershed and our communities. The Curriculum download is a PDF of the lesson plan. The Supporting File is a PDF containing the data packets, prediction tables, and associated student worksheets.
How Did They Get Here?
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.
Mapping Your Place
Students will construct a large map of a place of their choosing. This place will be divided into smaller sections using a string/flag grid system. Each student will take their time to create a map of one portion of the grid to be put together into a larger whole. The curriculum download is the plan for this lesson.
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.
Pourquoi Tales
Students will explore folklore and then write their own pourquoi tale. There are two curricula that are very similar. One has a section where students can create illustrations. The curriculum download is a PDF that includes the lesson plan and student sheets.
Satellite Photo of the St. Louis River Estuary
This is a current satellite photo of the St. Louis River Estuary. This is a great tool to aid your students in finding their place in the watershed. The curriculum download is an 11 inches by 17 inches PDF with a satellite image of the St. Louis River Estuary.