|
Environmental Education Resources Teaching Tips | Beginning Your CLL Project | Education Resources | CLL Home The Wildlife Habitat Council's Conservation Partners and others have developed quality educational resources that can enhance environmental education both in the classroom and in the field. These resources encompass most topics related to wildlife and conservation and provide opportunities for students to investigate, think critically and work in teams. WHC invites you to explore these resources. Our conservation members are denoted in green. American Birding Association (ABA) has activities that teach observation including identifying birds by sight and sound, using field guides and binoculars, and taking meaningful and useful field notes. ABA also has information on youth birding teams and sponsors birding camps, scholarships, and a young birder of the year contest. Bat Conservation International developed a comprehensive educational program on the important role of bats in the ecosystem. The Educational Activity Kit contains lessons on topics such as mother-child interactions that give students a sense of bat behavior. The catalog has posters, field guides, books and other educational materials for students of all ages. Other resources include information on how to build and monitor bat houses. The Conservation Fund helps communities to purchase and protect lands of ecological or cultural significance. Their newsletter, Common Ground provides excellent information on creative approaches to addressing community issues particularly those involving land use and water quality. Examples of the Fund’s success can easily be incorporated into case studies at the middle and high school levels. These best practices can also be incorporated into community decision-making. Cornell Lab of Ornithology has several programs that involve students in scientific research. Project FeederWatch, The Birdhouse Network, Project PigeonWatch and others involve students in collecting data that is then used by Cornell’s scientists. This is an excellent way to involve students in a larger effort. Ducks Unlimited (DU) teaches students about the importance of wetlands and other habitat for ducks. DU's youth program, Greenwings, is named after the Green-winged teal, the smallest of our waterfowl. The Greenwing program is for members 17 years old and younger. Today's youth will be tomorrow's leaders. Through education, we hope to make tomorrows leaders advocates for wetland conservation. The Greenwings Web site includes lesson plans, games and activities, facts and the Puddler magazine, which is distributed four times a year to Greenwing members 12 years or younger. The Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) has educational resources that cover sustainability education and lessons on air, forests, population and sustainability, water resources and wildlife. In particular the Save our Streams program engages citizens and students in monitoring water quality in local streams. IWLA also holds a youth convention in conjunction with their annual meeting. The National Audubon Society provides an education program that teaches third through sixth graders about birds, wildlife and their habits. Participants in this program gain an appreciation their role as responsible stewards. The National Library for the Environment, a project of the National Council for Science and the Environment contains credible information about environmental issues including reports written by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. It also contains links to newspapers from across the country and briefing books on current environmental issues. The National Wildlife Federation has programs, including educator workshops and resources, schoolyard habitat program and a campus ecology program. They also offer community programs such as clubs for kids and opportunities for teens. The National Wild Turkey Federation educates students about the return of wild turkey populations providing lesson plans, fact sheets, a CD-ROM and a video. Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship (JAKES) program provides information about wildlife conservation and responsible natural resources stewardship. In JAKES, children ages 17 and younger learn the basic outdoor skills necessary to become successful stewards of our natural resources. They learn to identify plants and animals, as well as how to effectively call in those elusive toms. Pheasants Forever provides information on protecting and creating habitat for the ring-necked pheasant. Their youth program introduces students to outdoor activities through mentoring relationship. Youth programs and mentor relationships help guide children to find their own conservation ethic. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation offers a series of games designed to teach kids about elk and WOW Magazine, which highlights environmental programs for kids. Through a grant from RMEF, Project WILD created WILD About Elk, an elk education program. The WILD About Elk educator's guide is full of background information and facts about elk with seven fun and educational activities in the back. The activities teach the importance of good habitat, the problems that wildlife encounter when trying to live near people and how wildlife managers gather and use information. Project WILD is a conservation education program especially designed for teachers of kindergarten through high school youth. RMEF's High Schools for Habitat (HSH) program is a national conservation education program for students in grades 9-12. The program works to create awareness of the principles of natural resource stewardship and conservation and the support mechanisms necessary to ensure the future of wildlife and wild places. The World Wildlife Fund’s environmental education program Windows on the Wild (WOW) uses biodiversity as a “window” to explore the web of life and the interconnectedness of living things. WOW also explores the complexity of biodiversity in an interdisciplinary context including social sciences and economics. |