Curated OER
Respect Wildlife and Farm Animals
In this performing arts and wildlife lesson, students role play 4 scenarios in order to demonstrate how to act around wildlife and farm animals. Students discuss the proper ways of feeding animals, touching them, and respecting the...
Curated OER
Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink
Students discuss the importance of taking care of their water supply so not only they can use it but generations in the future. In groups, they examine a real pollution scenario in which a sewer overflowed into the ground water. They use...
American Chemical Society
Chemical Reactions and Engineering Design
Construction leads to habitat loss and local wildlife suffers. Scholars must build a reptile egg incubation device that meets many constraints. Various experiments help them discover the chemical reaction needed to reach...
Curated OER
Why the Y2Y?
Students investigate the proposed route from Yellowstone to Yukon. They listen to lectures about the proposal and the different opinions concerning it. Students research the type of wildlife in the area for the road and they consider how...
Curated OER
Illegal coffee threatens wildlife
Students, after reading an article from the World Wide Fund for nature on coffee possibly being grown illegally in an Indonesian national park and being sold to major coffee brands, answer several worksheets to text questions about the...
Curated OER
To Fish or Not to Fish?
Young scholars demonstrate the decision-making process for marine reserves designations. For this role-playing lesson students analyze maps and data relating to a proposed reserve. They formulate the best decisions based on overall issues.
Curated OER
Regulating the Harvest
Students study the effect of trapping in the Illinois Territory in 1805 and compare it to trapping today. They participate in a role playing activity in which they discover how practices in early Illinois Territory led to wildlife...
Curated OER
Supermarkets, Sustenance and Sustainability
Students investigate jungles and the people who depend upon them. In this sustainability lesson, students research wild life conservation and discover the importance of a jungle to Amazonian people. Students create a group...
Science 4 Inquiry
The Ups and Downs of Populations
As the reality of population decline across many species becomes real, pupils learn about the variables related to changes in populations. They complete a simulation of population changes and graph the results, then discuss limiting...
Curated OER
John Muir - Around the World in 76 Years
Sixth graders create timelines of John Muir's life while playing a game based on John Muir's travels. They discover that John Muir traveled around the world to compare and contrast natural phenomena and to speak out about preserving...
Curated OER
Turning the Tide on Trash: Marine Debris Curriculum
Six different lessons comprise this unit on marine debris. Science, language arts, social studies, and art projects make this an ideal interdisciplinary unit. The result will be well-informed future citizens who can help make a...
Curated OER
Poisoning the Prairie
Seventh graders investigate what pesticides are and why people use them. They examine the effect of pesticides on prairie grasses and what alternatives can be used.
Curated OER
Beaver, or not?
Learners study the role of the beaver in Illinois during the 1800's and how overtrapping cause the near extinction of the beaver colonies in Illinois by 1900. Students role play various people in 1945 who have an opinion about the...
Curated OER
Bat Ecology
Students, through hands on games and activities, discover how bats live and how bats benefit ecosystems. They play a game designed to show them how echolocation works and another to show how mother bats locate their young through their...
Curated OER
Winter Survival
Students examine what animals need in order to survive. In this investigative lesson students play a "role" of an animal in winter.
Curated OER
New Mammal Species Found
Students brainstorm ideas about rodents, mammals and new discoveries. They describe rodents and participate in pre-reading activities. They read, discuss, and complete role play activities based on an article on the discovery of a new...
Curated OER
Get Out in the Field
Students visit a shoreline--of an ocean, a lake, a pond, a riverbank, etc., survey it and record what they find there. They map the shoreline and surrounding area and conclude where potential waterfront projects could occur.
Curated OER
Birds of Wisconsin
First graders explore the job done by ornithologists. They role play identifying the characteristics that make a bird a bird. They discuss what makes each bird species unique. Students are introduced to Wisconsin's most common and rare...
Curated OER
Winer Survival
Students study how animals need water, food, shelter, and space to survive. They also study what animals need to survive in the winter. They play the part of animals and winter "threats" in a game of tag to reinforce concepts.