The Boston School Forest is a field trip destination for 6,000 students each year providing high quality outdoor environmental education programs that expand and authenticate classroom learning. Science education in our district is transitioning to provide greater opportunity for inquiry, and teachers are now searching for resources that can be used in either face-to-face or e-learning formats. The Backyard Habitat Series focuses on connecting kids to an outdoor place through use of sensory observation, exploring the natural features and animals, and engaging in the improvement of habitat for neighborhood wildlife species. Classroom teachers, preservice teachers, and families will discover straightforward instructions, few materials or background knowledge required, and a format that is easily adaptable to the e-learning environment.

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.

he LEAF Wisconsin K-12 Forestry Lesson Guide includes complete interdisciplinary units for teaching students about forests and forestry in Wisconsin.
Subject areas addressed in the lessons include Arts, English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and H. Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory were referenced during the development of the guide. The LEAF Lesson Guide is based on principles outlined in the LEAF Conceptual Guide To K-12 Forestry Education in Wisconsin.

Unit-Based Lessons The unit-based lessons are divided by grade levels: K-1, 2-3, 4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Lessons build upon one another to provide connectivity in the students' educational experience. When taught as a unit, these lessons provide students a well-rounded understanding of forestry in Wisconsin. You may find that they are also effective when taught individually and integrated with other classroom material. Each lesson includes an introduction, step-by-step procedure for activities, and a conclusion. Formative assessment is woven throughout each lesson. Questions with answers are provided to help teachers follow the level of understanding of students. Summative assessment ideas are listed at the end of each lesson. Suggested activities have students apply what they have learned in a new way.

Students in Grades 3 & 4 at Chain Exploration Center developed an understanding of the important role that pollinators play in human food systems as well as in native habitats. Students also learned about the stressors, many of them human-influenced, that are associated with the decline in pollinator populations. Students also learned about ways that humans can improve pollinator habitat. The culmination of student learning was an environmental stewardship project: the installation of a pollinator garden on the school grounds. What follows is an outline of the project process and a discussion of the resources that were used. 

This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based lessons have been field-tested by the fifth grade students of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and their teachers. These lessons encourage students to use natural areas around their school as they improve their science and engineering skills as part of a unit on earth's systems. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school . These lessons were created to take place during late winter. A stewardship project to reduce the impact of stormwater run-off was planned for the spring.