Students learn to identify places where rain soaks into the ground or runs off into a sewer system and describe the impact this has on the natural system.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Students will research the life cycle, characteristics, and behavior of the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). They will regularly monitor Eastern Bluebird nestboxes and collect data using the Siftr app and may choose to report the data to BRAW (Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin). The data and observations can be used in various ongoing inquiry and research activities.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Phenology is the study of seasonal and cyclical changes in nature. In this Unit, students will follow in the footsteps of Aldo Leopold and his children by closely observing the natural world around them, connecting those observations to the seasonal changes in their landscape, and developing an appreciation for the dedication of scientists like Leopold. They will Connect, Explore, and Engage with nature through poetry writing, technology-assisted exploration, and phenological observations.
Material Type: Unit of Study
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.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Students explore Earth History using the Ancient Earth Globe web app.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
You work for ScienceSpeak, a public relations firm that educates the public about scientific issues. Your company has won a contract with the World Health Organization (WHO) to supply materials for their new multimedia public health campaign about climate change. The WHO is specifically interested in the relationship between climate change and the increasing prevalence of allergies and asthma worldwide. Your boss calls a meeting to discuss the contract. She gives you a set of Data Tables prepared for you by two expert scientists that summarize recent evidence on the effects of increasing carbon dioxide and temperature on allergenic plants. Your job is to design and produce a communication product such as a brochure, poster, web page, or television program that informs the public about potential links between climate change and allergies.
Material Type: Interim/Summative Assessment, Lesson Plan, Rubric/Scoring Guide
This is a resource to classify different animal species. See pictures and facts about animals around the world. Search specific landscapes and animal types.
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration, Learning Task, Reading, Reference Material
Through spatial and graphical analysis of bird populations on a fictional island, students learn the meaning of biodiversity, species richness, endemism, and abundance. With the teacher acting as a facilitator, students use an interactive PDF map to explore various ways to represent and compare biodiversity across ecoregions. Students manipulate information layers to identify, describe, compare and graph bird distribution patterns in the island's different ecoregions. Rather than being given a list of vocabulary words, students grapple with the material to discover the meaning of these words and concepts. Through this experiential process, they combine the newly acquired terminology with complementary skills to evaluate and communicate their findings on bird biodiversity. This lesson prepares students for the more complex use of spatial and graphical analysis in our GIS-based Amazon unit.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Climate expert Richard Alley of Penn State adds perspective on how our activities can make a difference as our planet warms.
Material Type: Lesson
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.
Material Type: Unit of Study
Professor Carter is a theorist/computational scientist first known for her research combining ab initio quantum chemistry with dynamics and kinetics, especially as applied to surface chemistry. Her research into how materials fail due to chemical and mechanical effects led to new insights into how to optimally protect these materials against failure. Her current research is focused entirely on enabling discovery and design of molecules and materials for sustainable energy.
Material Type: Lesson
The course provides the technological background of treatment processes applied for production of drinking water. Treatment processes are demonstrated with laboratory experiments.
Material Type: Full Course, Lecture Notes, Reading
This website is a list of threatened & endangered species of Wisconsin. You will be able to determine how to identify these species and find out about their habitat, breeding, and sounds.
Material Type: Reading, Reference Material
Engineering a Difference follows three teams of engineering students and professional engineers as they work with communities in Ghana, Kenya and Nicaragua to build critical infrastructure. Together, they develop a clean water supply, electricity and a bridge to help these isolated communities thrive. Here are colorful, compelling stories of how engineers make the world a better place.
Material Type: Lesson
This collection uses primary sources to environmental preservation in the Progressive Era. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
Material Type: Primary Source
Are you a dreamer, risk-taker, and experimental mess-maker? Are you interested in new media and how technology can transform learning experiences? If so, we want to talk with you! Visit our website to learn more about the workshops, free educational tools, and teacher fellowships we provide.
Material Type: Other
In this lesson, students simulate forest succession and disturbances by role-playing trees. Using calculations, students discover how forests are renewable resources.
Material Type: Game, Interactive, Learning Task, Simulation, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Students develop an understanding of the maple syrup process from tapping trees to evaporating sap through hands-on experiences.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Formative Assessment, Learning Task, Lesson, Other, Reference Material, Unit of Study
This lesson plan gives students first-hand experience in analyzing the link between atmospheric temperatures and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations by looking at ice core data spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
Material Type: Learning Task, Lesson Plan
GeoClimate is a developing community-based initiative that focuses on the importance of "deep time" for understanding today's climate and climate change. Earth's climate system operates on a continuum of temporal, spatial, and parametric scales. The deep-time geologic record preserves numerous examples of past climate transitions between states more extreme than those recorded in instrumental data, in historical records, or even in Quaternary archives. Critically, some of these transitions show evidence of having been abrupt--a major societal concern in light of the large changes currently occurring in atmospheric CO2 levels, which have now moved beyond the envelope of Quaternary variation, and into the realm of deep time. In this regard, an understanding of the details of large-scale transitions in deep time, and the processes involved in them, is critical to an informed assessment of future climate change.
Material Type: Lesson
