The resources and project outline are the collaborative efforts of the Chain Exploration Center Grades 5 & 6 teachers and a FIELD Edventures educator. The goals of the project were for students to take civic action on environmental issues of local importance. Additionally, the teachers wanted students to become familiar with the four habitat areas, and observable species present in each area.  It was decided that conducting a bioblitz across 4 days–one in each area–would provide students with data that would be the basis for individual and small group investigative questions, issue definition and investigation, and a proposal for conservation, protection, and/or restoration of natural resources, habitats, or species of Wisconsin. Students then presented their proposals to their state senator in a visit to the Wisconsin State Capitol.

This lesson will focus on ecosystems! While exploring in Aurelia, you may have seen two different marine ecosystems - the pelagic ocean and coral reefs. While exploring them, you will have learned about the different animals that call those habitats home and the adaptations they have to do so! This lesson will expand on what ecosystems are, how organisms adapt to their ecosystems, apply that knowledge to a kelp forest ecosystem, and connect this lesson to conservation applications.

This Ecology Unit covers all 5th Grade Life Science Standards. It is designed to take approximately one semester. It includes labs, discussion questions, and projects.

This lesson has been designed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a teaching aid on the topic of weather. This lesson discusses the four seasons and weather patterns that correspond to seasons.

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.