Earth Partnership for Schools
TOOLS FOR TEACHERS
The Earth Partnership for Schools (EPS) staff have developed a wide range of restoration activities and other resources for use in the classroom and on school sites:
New! EPS Phenology Wheels Curriculum
Georgia Gómez Ibáñez of Cambridge Elementary School, Anne Forbes of Partners in Place, LLC, and Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong of Earth Partnership for Schools have collaborated to present Phenology Wheels, a new curriculum for students to learn about seasonal events and cycles in a hands-on, experiential way. Phenology is defined as the study of natural events, such as bird migration or fall leaf color, that recur periodically in relation to climate and seasonal change. This innovative K-12 Phenology curriculum allows students to rediscover their sense of place through art, writing and photography and provides an investigative tool for students to study their schoolyard or neighborhood or even to enhance a natural area, be it a woodland, grassland, or wetland, as a high quality wildlife habitat. Georgia, a K-12 environmental educator, developed, tested, and wrote five new phenology-based activities at her school in Cambridge, WI. The activities are based on Anne's “Wheels of Time and Place,” an approach to keeping circular journals in order to bring careful attention to the natural world and the cycles of life. This way of journal-keeping works well for all ages, whether one lives in the city, suburbs, or the countryside.
Earth Partnership for Schools is pleased to offer this curriculum for teachers and parents interested in connecting children and youth to the natural world in a simple and inspiring way. Funding for this project is from the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board.
Go to the links below to download the activities, and give them a try in your classrooms or youth groups. Please let us know about your experience by filling out the feedback form. We'll be updating the curriculum later in 2010, after we hear back from you. Go to Anne's Web site at http://www.partnersinplace.com to view an online gallery of examples, and email Anne at anne@partnersinplace.com if you have completed "Wheels" to share in the gallery. The Wheels of Time and Place blank circular journals are available for purchase as a package or as a digital download at http://www.partnersinplace.com.
Rain Garden Individual Activities
- Intro
- A Rain Garden Year
- Bimodal Botany Bouquet
- Conjunction Function
- Noting Notable Features
- Follow the Drop
- Identifying Soil
- Infilitration Test
- Measuring Slope
- Sizing a Rain Garden
- Designing a Rain Garden
- Species List
- Species Selection
- What's a Square Foot Anyway
- Planting a School Rain Garden
- Rain Garden Maintenance
- Getting the Word Out
- Glossary
- Resources
Individual Phenology Wheel Activities
- Birthday Phenology Game
- Wheelscapes - Enhancing a Sense of Place
- Habitat Assessors-Summarizing, Organizing, & Analyzing
- Habitat Detectives-Investigating Sites & Collecting Data
- Habitat Enhancers-Creating a Habitat Improvement Project
- Feedback Form
Restoration-Based Research Activities for the Classroom
You can get a list of activities for the classroom in both DOC and PDF formats:
WOODLAND RESTORATION INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP
Learn about Wisconsin woodland communities -- what types of woodlands grow in Wisconsin and the general characteristics of woodland ecosystems. Here you can identify plant species and woodland communities that may grow on your site.
Earthteaching Newsletter
Click here to see archived copies of Earth Partnership for Schools newsletters.
EPS E-mail List
Earth Partnership for Schools has developed an e-mail list to facilitate discussion on schoolyard-based ecological restoration and corresponding curricula.
The purposes of this listserve are twofold. First, it provides us with a way to easily update those involved with the program with news of our activities and new resources.
Second, it facilitates dialogue among those of us working in the area of school-based ecological restoration. It is intended for use by teachers, community volunteers, school administrators and related program staff.
We feel that topics should range widely and cover such areas as new ideas for classroom activities, technical aspects of ecological restoration, building support in local communities, and working with school administrations.
To send a message to everyone on the list, you simply send a message to the list's e-mail address. The Earth Partnership Program list is "private" which means that junk e-mailers will not have access to your address. Upon signing up for the list, you will receive more detailed information on how to use the list.
To join the Earth Partnership Program Listserve (named "Earth-Partnership"), send an e-mail to eps@uwarboretum.org