Earth Partnership for Schools

What is an ecosystem and how do ecosystems interact? Students create a mental model of ecosystems and habitats.

Students determine the history of their ecological community using original and local sources.

1. Research Land History Through Primary Sources
   Gain a deeper understanding of our relationship to the land
2. Land Use History Through Literature
   The human experience in relation to land through reading
3. Land Use Over Time: Examining Living History
   Interview senior citizens about the area’s history
4. Land Use History: Survey and Land Ownership Records
   Research the original land surveys, survey notes and ownership records
5. Early Surveying Experiences: Locating Witness Trees
   Surveying methods using compasses and tape measures

Students investigate the current site conditions to determine the suitability for different species and restoration strategies.

1. Conducting a Site Analysis
   Students analyze their school grounds
2. Compass Basics
   Learn how to determine direction and locate objects
3. Mapping Your Schoolyard
   Use compasses and measuring tapes to create a schoolyard map
4. Noting Notable Features
   Survey your schoolyard, and learn about the layout of the school property
5. The Hidden & Informal Curriculum
   Investigate school grounds and determine what appeals to students
6. Exploring Your Site Through Color, Texture, & Pattern
   Discover and analyze your school grounds
7. What’s Possible? Analyzing Existing Vegetation for Answers
   Students identify plants on school grounds and determine significance of each
8. How Do You Measure Up?
   Measuring tree height
9. Measuring Up Tree Size
   Identify, measure, and chronicle trees growing on school grounds
10. How Tall Are You? Measuring Up Plant Size
    Measure and compare plant heights
11. Woodland Layer Assessment
    Investigate a woodland area using scientific collection methods
13. Topography: Measuring Slope
    Calculate the percent of slope in your schoolyard
15. Soil Texture Feel Test
    Collect soil samples and classify according to texture
16. Infiltrations Tests: Exploring the Flow of Water Through Soils
    Explore water flow into and through soils
17. Soil Profile Investigations
    Examine soil profiles
18. Soils Studies: Living Versus Non-Living Examination
    Dissect a cubic foot of soil

Students reach out to both the school and local communities to share their expertise and resources and to get more connected with the school.

1. Community Assets Mapping
   Identify and activate the assets of the community to support your project
2. Telling the Restoration Story
   Create a photographic essay of restoration

Students choose an area for the habitat based on the site analysis, create a design, lay out the design, develop a budget, and select appropriate species.

1. A Prairie Year
   A play that illustrates the seasonal order of bloom in a prairie
2. Designing a Restoration
   Create a restoration landscape plan for your school
3. Where Does Your Garden Grow?
   Choose a garden to match the conditions of your site
5. What’s a Square Foot Anyway? (Laying Out the Design Plan)
   Use a scale drawing and square foot templates to map out your design
6. Prairie Garden Species Selection
   Create a list of species for your restoration site
7. Woodland Species Selection
   Create a list of species for a restoration using an electronic database
8. Up Close & Personal
   Research a plant and create an information sheet about it
9. How Much Seed Do I Need?
   Measure and calculate quantity of seed needed for a planting site
10. Balancing the Budget
    Create a final seed order that is balanced and fiscally realistic

Students, with the help of the community, remove existing vegetation using a variety of approaches including cultivation, mulching, and sod removal.

1. Site Preparation Techniques
   Learn about site preparation strategies
2. Site Preparation Scenarios
   Read, discuss, and make judgments about scenarios related to restoration
3. How Much Mulch
   Students research mulching techniques and costs

Students sow seeds and/or transplant seedlings.

1. Seeds to Seedlings: Seed Collection
   Collect and learn about seeds
2. Seeds to Seedlings: Seed Cleaning and Storage
   Learn how seeds adapt to survive in their environment
3. Seeds to Seedlings: Propagating Seeds in the Classroom
   Learn the mechanics of how to start seedlings
4. Mixing the Seed
   Mix seed and filler noting each species being added
5. A Time to Sow
   Planting the restoration site
7. Planting Birthday Celebrations
   Ideas for celebrating your planting
8. Celebrating a Community
   Print a Celebration “Quilt”

• Extra:
  Seed Mix Formula
  Figure out how many seeds you need

Students learn to identify and how to control invasive plants.

1. Managing Your Restoration
   Manage restoration site with weeding, mowing, cutting, mulching, watering
2. Invasion of the Non-Natives
   Learn the identification of non-native plants in the school restoration site
3. Weed Cards
   Create a set of laminated cards to identify weeds in the restoration
4. Weed Lotto: How Brazen is the Invasion?
   Determine frequency of non-native plants in restoration
5. Young Prairie Check-Up
   Inventory and determine the health of restoration

Students ask questions and gather data throughout the restoration process, using their own creativity to find the answers.

1. Inquiry-based Field Problems
   Students ask questions and design experiments on their schoolyard restorations
2. Germination Determination
   Calculating germination percentages
3. What Does a Seed Need?
   Design an experiment to geminate seeds
10. Sweeping Discoveries
    Study the insect world in your restoration project
11. Inquiry Learning: Students as Ecological Researchers
    Design, conduct research and present results
12. Inquiry Learning: What’s Your Favorite Color?
    Conduct research on insects with colored plastic bowls

• Extras:
  Big Seed Little Seed
  Investigate seed success
• Worm Worlds
  Investigate earthworm populations
• Weed Bingo
  Game boards

Students engage in activities that incorporate language arts, science, math, social studies and service learning opportunities. They participate in creating a living legacy at their schools and can learn how to be citizen stewards of their own communities.

1. Bison Skin Art
   Create a work of art Plains Indians used to record important events
2. Dialogue Between a Plant & Pollinator
   Observe insect and plant interactions
3. Geometry in Nature
   Locate native plants that represent geometric shapes
4. Going After the Cows
   Tell a story that reflects how nature has spoken to you
5. Insect Charades
   Learn about major categories of insects through acting
6. Letter to Relative
   Reflect on why do a native restoration
7. Nature’s Patterns
   Locate mathematical and geometric patterns
8. Navigating the Woodland Web Site
   Learn about woodland ecosystems through the EPS Woodland Web Site
9. Phenology: Nature Walks
   Observe and record seasonal changes
10. Plant Immigrants
    Research introduction of non-native plants to the New World
11. Plant Power! (Food & Medicinal Plant Uses)
    Research Native American uses of plants in a prairie restoration
12. Reflective Journal
    Record your outdoor observations
13. Schoolyard Poetry/Rap
    Express your feelings and experiences about a natural system
15. Spring Fever
    Take a prairie’s temperature
16. Twigs Are for Kids
    Use twigs to identify trees on school grounds
17. Phenology: Sharing & Comparing Your Schoolyards’ Clocks
    Life cycles and climate trends across geographic regions
18. Phenology: Climate Change in Your Schoolyard
    Explore how changes in climate affect life cycles in their restorations

• Extra: Back in the Day…An Historical PerspectiveCreate a time-line of historic events in your community