John Muir is known as the father of our National Parks. His boyhood was spent in Marquette County, Wisconsin where he found inspiration in the wilderness around him. In this Unit, students will learn about John Muir’s boyhood neighborhood and actively work to preserve it, connect with Muir’s many accomplishments, understand different environmental philosophies, and saunter in nature while observing and reflecting on the world around them. Students will Connect, Explore, and Engage through intentional time in nature, reflective writing, reading inspirational passages by Muir, and using technology to document changes over time.

Using a weekly assessment to link environmental studies content to an ELS standard.

This culturally-relevant text set offer different perspectives for students to see as well aswonderful conversation starters. Students learn of different careers within the IndigenousWorld. Some of those careers being: Traditional Seed Keepers, Gardeners, KnowledgeKeepers, Storytellers, and More!Dig your bare feet into the soil and feel those connections to your ancestors, the land, theplants, animals, and all things. We are all connected. Let’s work together and connect our pastto the present, for the future... of learning!

This activity uses the reading, A Cool Connection (as a short story or one act play), to increase student understanding of how electrical power gets to their home and to introduce the connections between environmental problems and personal consumption. The storyline revolves around a group of high school students seeking relief from a heatwave while planning activities for their Ecology Club.

Topics introduced and assessed:
• The steps needed to move electrical power from where it is produced to where it is consumed
• The environmental costs of energy production
• The social costs of not meeting electrical demand

The "Dairy Products in Wisconsin" unit for high school English Language Learners focuses on enhancing various linguistic skills through practical and engaging activities. I created this slideshow as a daily launch for mini-lessons in ag-themed language activities for my students in Food Science learning English as an additional language.

What follows is a collection of lessons on soils that supported a larger inquiry-based project by 7th and 8th grade students on food security in the Waupaca area community. The project was designed to be implemented using the large community garden as a context for learning. This community garden is a showcase feature of the Chain Exploration Center, a 4K-8 school, and, through the efforts of students, teachers, families, and community volunteers, has grown, and donated, a staggering amount of fresh produce for local food pantries. Students of the Chain of Exploration Center were fortunate to work with the nutrient management specialist of the Land and Water Conservation Office of Waupaca County for soil sampling and analysis. This community member provided soil probes and the expertise in collection of samples. He also sent the samples on to the lab and assisted in the interpretation of the results. 

In this short unit of study, four-year-old kindergarten students learn to differentiate and identify common domesticated animals and local wild animals by sight and sound. This unit is a series of 3 video lessons and 2 field-based lessons. 

Unit Title: Dream Garden MeasurementsAuthor: Melissa WimmlerSchool: Discovery Charter School, Columbus School DistrictGrade Level: 2nd GradeContent Area(s): Math, Environmental ScienceContext: Our governance council is working on a school wide project to improve the lawn space in front of our school and create our dream garden. During this six-lesson unit the second-grade students estimated and accurately measured objects in the space and perimeter. The students calculated the area of the space and used square units to plan spaces and garden beds.

This template is to be used in the Connect, Explore, Engage professional learning series. Sign into WISELearn to create your own copy of this resource and update the template and this abstract.

What does a green AND healthy school look like? Take a good look at your school from these nine different perspectives. Where is your school excelling? Where could your school use some improvements?

These pages are written for a student audience with opportunities for them to connect, explore, and engage with the nine focus areas in Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin: Body & Mind, Community Engagement, Energy, Environmental Literacy, Healthy Buildings, School Grounds, Transportation, Waste, and Water.

Context:The teachers facilitate an author study every year among our K-2 unit. This year, we wanted to focus on local authors who have written picture books that address both cultural and environmental literacy. The books included in this unit by Miranda and Baptiste Paul. These texts teach about the water cycle, the life cycle of plants, how our environment impacts our recreation, and how individuals can rally their communities to make improvements in their environment.  understanding.About the author: Ned Dorff has been teaching for 20 years. He has taught regular, gifted, special, and alternative education classes. Ned holds a master’s degree in Environmental Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

This resource will allow you to teach the concept of Farm to Table to your students as well as providing them with the understanding of the agricultural industry and how it connects us all together, and how it plays a role in their everyday lives.

This unit begins and ends with the motivating reality that my fifth graders are responsible forthe raspberry patch on our school grounds. Since they are responsible for maintaining,harvesting, and caring for this patch in general, it is a logical connection that they should beknowledgeable about it. In the end, it is a true learning-by-doing experience. It should benoted that this is an ongoing recurring type of unit that we come back to with variousexperiences throughout the school year.

Authors: Tiffany Lodholz, Morgan May, Jenny GrimesSchool: High Marq Environmental Charter School, Montello School DistrictUnit Title: Garden MathGrade Level: 7-12Content Area(s): Environmental Science, MathematicsContext:High Marq Environmental Charter School is a project and place based school that serves grades 7-12 in Marquette County, Wisconsin. Each week our students participate in a full day field experience designed to connect, explore and engage with the outdoors. These five lessons were all a part of those experiences. Our focus this year was on gardening. All of these lessons took place in the school garden on campus, Our school district has a greenhouse for us to start seeds in and our garden uses primarily raised beds. The students also traveled to a local greenhouse to purchase supplemental plants, soil, mulch, hay, and other accessories.

"How to Teach Nature Journaling" by John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren (2020) is a free PDF curriculum guide to support educators as they model and teach science thinking by keeping a nature journal. The benefits of nature journaling are that it helps students to:
• slow down and pay attention
• wonder and ask questions
• supporting creativity and critical thinking skills
• by seeing themselves as scientists, engaging in authentic science inquiry
• nurturing a connection with nature
• building equity”
(p. 7 of How to Teach Nature Journaling by Law and Muir, 2020)

This inquiry is designed for supporting students' independent exploration of water outdoors as well as the use of computer interactives. 

This 10-lesson sequence designed for a sixth grade science course explores the following questions: How can humans lessen the harsh effects of extreme heat?How does surface cover affect surface temperature? / Why do different materials experience differences in surface temperature?How might human activities impact the temperatures in the different communities?How can humans mitigate the effects of heat islands?Using the framework from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad outlined in her book Cultivating Genius, each lesson pays special attention to looking at pursuits in identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy to support equity in the classroom. Please Remix this template for your purposes.

Through this interactive, hands-on lesson, students will read and gain an understanding of Aldo Leopold’s essay, “January Thaw”. This lesson is best taught in January and/or when animal tracks are present outside.

In this series of activities, students build their background knowledge about bats through a variety of media and texts (Activity 1), play games to learn more about how bats interact with their prey and how they use their bodies, and choose an action(s) to help make the world a better place for bats, and therefore, humans (Activity 2). My students decided to create educational posters convincing people to help bats, plant a bat garden, build a bat house, and adopt-a-bat. They also wrote persuasive letters to hang the bat house on our school, which they presented to the administration (and the project was approved - in addition to which the principal asked us to create additional educational materials to teach the school community - teachers, students, other staff - and families about the benefits of bats).

Students will use hands-on models, maps, and the natural landscape to describe landforms in our area and and develop and understanding of the effects of water and wind on these landforms. Prior to these lessons, students will have had experiences with the use of "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of" protocols as well as field journaling. This is a unit for second grade landforms that culminates in a visit to Roche-A-Cri State Park.