Utilizing the Lake Superior watershed and the St. Louis River as a foundation for learning
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 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. The curriculum download is a PDF lesson plan for this activity. The supporting file is a PowerPoint slideshow to support the lesson.
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. The curriculum download is a PDF of this informational reader.
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! The curriculum download is a PDF lesson plan for this activity. The supporting file is a PowerPoint slideshow to support this lesson.
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.
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.
Get out in your own backyard and see what's going on! Open up the Nature Nibble curriculum document to take a look at what might be going on outside your window. Use the Nature Nibble Links supporting file to open up a YouTube video from Ms. Deanna to watch before you go outside. Be sure to look around for other things happening outside your window and either write them down or draw them on your Nature Nibble sheet or in your journal. Get out there and have fun! --Curriculum file is a Clouds Worksheet -- Supporting file is a sheet with links to the video lesson and fun cloud facts
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.
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.