This link has a teacher guide, 3 student graphing activity sheets, rubric and a complete description of the activities related to climate change and invasive species.
The Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin (IPAW) is a nonprofit membership-based organization whose mission is to promote better stewardship of the natural resources of Wisconsin by advancing the understanding of invasive plants, preventing their introduction, and encouraging the control of their spread.
IPAW defines an invasive plant as one that invades native plant communities and impacts those native communities by displacing or replacing native vegetation.
Both a weed and an invasive plant are plants out of place, but an invasive plant encroaches into forests, roadsides, and prairies where it is unchecked by the devotions of an obsessive backyard gardener. The ramifications of invasive plants are so much more ominous than that of weeds because they can and do destroy the natural diversity of native vegetation.
Ironically, many invasive plants get their foothold through well-meaning gardeners who introduce the species as a lovely accent to their patch of paradise. However, many of these plants come from foreign lands and do not have the natural controls that a native plant has. Soon the nonnative plant takes over – first the garden and then, by propagating via the wind, through deep-set runners and by the cooperation of willing birds carrying the seeds, more distant places.
There are many plants that are invasive in Wisconsin. To ease you into an awareness of invasive plants without overwhelming you, IPAW has developed this list of Wisconsin’s Worst foreign invaders.
This activity is a classroom chemistry lab where students will test different cleaning methods that could be used in oil spills. They will see the effects how oil spills damage animals and the environment.
This activity is a self-created lab investigation where students gather data on acid and its affects on seed germination.
This activity is a field investigation and comparison of three aquatic ecosystems.
In this field lab students will investigate the biodiversity around their school. Students will perform a biodiversity count using transect line. The students will develop multiple hypotheses relating to biodiversity and propose additional procedures for studying, collecting and testing these questions.
This investigation is a field study where students compare the diversity of plants and insects in a naturally existing habitat to that of a human altered habitat.
This activity is field investigation where students map a neighborhood wetland and generate various watershed questions. Students identify engineered structures in or around this wetland and consider how flood water can be controlled.
This activity is a classroom quick lab where students explore sand, soil, and water in relation to absorption and permeability.
This activity is a guided inquiry investigation where students gather data on which soil is the best for growing plants. Student will interpret their data, and develop a conclusion from the data. The student will determine which type of soil they would like to use in the next activity of making their own terrariums. The data collected could lead to further questions, which can be investigated in some extension activities.
This activity is a field investigation where students conduct biological sampling on goldenrod galls and form conclusions.
In this investigation, students gather biotic and abiotic data and samples in the field, develop an experiment to test another abiotic factor in the lab, synthesize group data, interpret their findings and make a claim on the health of the wetland ecosystem.
This activity is a field investigation where students make observations in the Minnesota River valley, discuss their findings amongst other student groups, and describe how those observations fit with the general geology of Minnesota.
This activity is a field investigation where students collect and design an experiment to identify the water quality of a section of the North Branch of the Root River in Lanesboro, MN. The investigation is done in collaboration with Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center.
This activity is a field investigation where students list plants and animals they observe. Students will organize their data as producers, consumers, or decomposers and create a food web showing how they affect each other. They will predict what will happen if the food web becomes imbalanced by extinction or over population.
The Protistan Tales of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps WebQuest features a guided exploration of microbial diversity. It introduces students to the extreme habitat of the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp and encourages them to explore characteristics of the microorganisms that live there. The WebQuest applies the personification theme of Aesop's Fables as a means to acquaint students with protists. It challenges them to search for microbial "personality traits" and to implement these traits into a creative storyline. Through the use of on-line images, descriptions, videos, and reference sites, students will carefully research specific protists while independently developing observational skills essential to microbiology. Upon completion of this WebQuest, students should be able to differentiate protists based on physical characteristics and specialized forms of locomotion, describe the microbial diversity of Atlantic White Cedar Swamps, and apply learned observational skills to hands-on laboratory activities.
Students will brainstorm ways that they use and waste natural resources. Also, they will respond to some facts about population growth and how people use petroleum. Lastly, students will consider the different ways that engineers interact with and use our natural resources.
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School has an annual sugarbush within a few miles of the school. During the Spring sugarbush season, students are bussed to the site, by class, to do the variety of daily tasks required to successfully produce maple syrup. The LCO middle school students follow the Ojibwe traditions. They hear the traditional stories, learn words and phrases in the Ojibwemowin language, tap trees, collect and boil sap, chop wood and build fires. The students learn about tree identification, photosynthesis, and aging trees using cross sections. They also learn about the importance and uses of Maple trees. The students learn that the environmental conditions needed to make maple syrup are only found in a very small part of the world that includes Wisconsin. The combination of hands-on exploration and culturally - relevant texts personalize the learning experience for this region.
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School has an annual sugarbush within a few miles of the school. During the Spring sugarbush season, students are bussed to the site, by class, to do the variety of daily tasks required to successfully produce maple syrup. The LCO middle school students follow the Ojibwe traditions. They hear the traditional stories, learn words and phrases in the Ojibwemowin language, tap trees, collect and boil sap, chop wood and build fires. The students learn about tree identification, photosynthesis, and aging trees using cross sections. They also learn about the importance and uses of Maple trees. The students learn that the environmental conditions needed to make maple syrup are only found in a very small part of the world that includes Wisconsin. The combination of hands-on exploration and culturally - relevant texts personalize the learning experience for this region. This remix adds content related to the sugarbush operated by the Bayfield High School Alternative Education program.
A "Just in Time Teaching" question about he scientific method with follow-up class room activities and an exam question.