Teachers and Home Schoolers
We would like to encourage you to use these lesson plans to support home learning. Please consider visiting some of the local green spaces in our watershed to support student understanding and to help them make connections with what they are learning!
Also, remember to take a bag with you for any trash you may see along the way! Have fun learning and growing together!
Lesson Plan 1 - Green Green
Green Green: A Community Gardening Story
Lesson Plan 2 - Seeds
Adaptable Lesson Plan for Grades 3-5
Lesson Plan 3 - My Hair is a Garden
My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A Cabera
DIY Dandelion Detective Toolkit
A Pollination Community Science Program – at OSU.edu
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center teacher resources
Webinars for teachers, and curriculum for ages Pre-K through 6th grade
Jared the Nature Guy
Songs, books, and a printable native plant “Party Animals” card game for all ages! Also Sunday School and Homeschool Curriculum.
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS
From the Nature Conservancy – “designed for ages 9-15 but customizable for all ages, virtual field trips allow students to travel the world and explore natural environments without leaving the classroom. Each virtual field trip contains a video, teacher guide, and student activities.”
TOPICS:
• You’re the Scientist! A Virtual Field Trip about Citizen Science, Frogs, and Cicadas!
• Changing Climate, Changing Cities
• The Secret Life of Corals
• Borneo: The Symphony of the Rainforest
• View from a Canoe
• Wild Biomes: America’s Rainforests & Deserts
• The Coral Reefs of Palau
• China’s Great Forests
• Powering the Planet: Renewable Energy,
• Journey of Water: Colombia’s Páramo
• Peru: A Coastal Ecosystem
• Ridge to Reef: A Virtual Field Trip to Hong Kong
Additional Youth Curriculum offered as well
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
TREES: “Meet SomeTrees” give a good overview of several native species found in the watershed – challenge your students to find these trees where they live!
SWIFTlets for SCIENCE STANDARDS: Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District’s SWIFTlets have been created to enhance at-home learning and exploration. These instructional guides include topical background information, related children’s books, straightforward learning activities and related online resources. Each SWIFTlet has a corresponding coloring page. The SWIFTlets are aligned to Ohio’s Learning Standards for Earth and Space Science and Life Science. The SWIFTlets and coloring pages are available on their website.
SWIFTlet Standards Correlations 2022 (overview)
Website with downloadable SWIFTlets and coloring pages
GRANTS
NEEF grants: NEEF offers a variety of grants and awards to help organizations engage their local community to improve the environment, increase diversity, and expand their work locally. We routinely highlight individual and group commitment to nature through education and service. Last year, NEEF provided nearly $700,000 in grants and awards to educational (both formal and informal) and public land partners across the country.
CHALLENGES
Climate Superstars is an online environmental challenge that gets kids excited about the environment and how they can take an active role in caring for its future.
During the challenge, middle school classrooms and after-school programs (Grades 6-8) complete short tasks geared towards environmental literacy and energy efficiency. Classes that complete at least 7 tasks in the month of October (1-31) will be entered into a drawing to win one of six $5,000 e-vouchers for Samsung products like tablets, laptops, and interactive displays to modernize their classrooms.