by editor | Sep 19, 2025 | STEM
STEM Field Study Kits for All!
by Martin E. Fortin, Jr.
AWSP Director of Learning Centers
Originally published in CLEARING January 2017
arly in my career as a science teacher I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by the famous Princeton professor Dr. Herbert Alyea. His demonstrations were so legendary he was referred to as Dr. Boom. In fact, he loudly ignited some gases for us during the lecture. But I better knew of his creation of the TOPS program. The acronym stood for The Overhead Projection Series. Dr. Alyea was convinced that the best way to learn was for each student to have their own miniature lab kit that they could use at their desk to follow along with his demonstrations. This kit did not involve explosions but did replicate real lab investigations. I still have my kit I received the day of that seminar.
As a former 7th grade life science teacher I knew that given the assignment, students can find almost anything in the natural environment. I would announce a weekly field trip just out the doors of my classroom. The students were charged with finding mosses, ferns, grasses, insects, or whatever natural science unit we were studying. They never failed in finding the samples I requested. It wasn’t until I began my tenure at the Cispus Learning Center that I realized we could replicate the professor’s ideas for field study in an inexpensive way. Dr. Alyea’s concept of each student having the means for hands-on investigations inspired me to develop a field kit for outdoor study.
As an ASB advisor I was very familiar with the contents of the catalogs from the Oriental Trading Company and US Toy. Combing through those catalogs I discovered inexpensive items that could replicate those pieces of equipment commonly used in a formal laboratory. Among other things I filled the study kit with a pair of scissors, a hand lens, a ruler, and hand-made meter tape, a plant press, study plot place-markers, and tools to hold or probe those interesting items found outdoors.
Here’s the breakdown:
$0.15 Small writing pad for taking notes
$0.05 Magnifying glass for examining items
$0.02 Small Cardboard Plant press for collecting samples
$0.05 Cardboard Clipboard & Produce bag rain cover
$0.125 Ruler for measuring
$0.125 Scissors for collecting samples
$0.02 Popsicle sticks for marking sites
$0.06 Small plastic bags for collecting items
$0.02 Acid/ base indicator strips from a spa supply company
$0.15 Crayons for sketching, recording, marking
$0.05 Plastic Scratcher for digging
$0.01 Toothpicks for separating or holding down items
$0.00 Flexible measuring tape made from back-to-back masking tape and marked by students
$0.04 Zip lock bag to keep everything together-marked with the owner’s name.
$0.08 Sales tax
$0.95 TOTAL
Some other almost free options I found along the way:
Plastic picnic knife for separating items, Old cassette tape boxes for collecting and storing specimens, Paper plates as an examination platform, Coffee filters for separating liquids.
I believe using readily available and inexpensive tools to encourage and nurture the exploration of our natural environment is an effective approach to learning. Especially valuable when the student is alongside their teacher using the same tools. Dr. Alyea once said “A good teacher is one who explains a concept; a better teacher is one who asks questions about the concept; and the best teacher is one who demonstrates the concept then solicits the questions from the students.”
With this Field STEM kit every student can have their own personal set of tools to investigate the natural environment. Even better- they can take them home at the end of the school year and continue to explore the out of doors wherever they go.
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Martin Fortin is director of the Chewelah and Cispus outdoor Learning Centers in Washington. He was a science techer for 16 years, and was given the President’s Award from the Environmental Education Association of Washington.
by editor | Sep 17, 2025 | Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Inquiry, Marine/Aquatic Education, STEM, Student research, Teaching Science
Making Science Engaging at Camp
Connecting art and science helps students find STEM classes more engaging and enjoyable
By Elli Korthuis
4-H is a youth development organization that focuses on helping members, ages 5-19 years, grow as individuals through their mastery of their passions, referred to as their spark. The more traditional 4-H program offers clubs in projects such as sewing, presentations, and livestock. However, 4-H reaches a broader audience through its non-traditional programs including camp and in-school instruction.
We attempt to offer a broad range of classes at our 4-H camps including those in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). One of the reoccurring themes we see in 4-H camp evaluations is that the science classes are “boring” while the craft classes have remained highly popular. With the growing need for STEM education, we needed to find a way to make these classes more engaging and enjoyable for the youth.
Over 2017, my colleague, Robin Galloway, and I developed a camp class to teach aquatic science, microscope skills, and basic nature terminology. To engage the youth in the STEM themed class, we incorporated art lessons since this was where their interest resided according to past evaluations. It was initially to be taught at the Oregon 4-H Center in Salem for campers in grades 4 – 8 along with their camp counselors. The facility is in a forested region with camp cabins, several buildings for lessons, and a pond.
During the class, we started indoors with a discussion of what organisms and materials could be found in the pond. I opened by asking which youth would want to drink the water from the pond. To my surprise, nearly half the class agreed that it would be safe to drink the unfiltered pond water. Several more said they wouldn’t because it was “gross” but didn’t have an explanation for their answer. We talked about the flora and fauna that may leave their traces in the water all the way down to potential microscopic organisms. Terms were explained along the way but there was nearly always at least one youth that could define a scientific term for the class. It was also an opportunity to gauge how in depth their knowledge was of water particles from different sources.
After our discussion, we went as a group to the pond and they could compare their discussion to what they were seeing. We got a bucket of pond water for a water sample and the youth had the chance to identify some of the particulates. Clipboards with water color paper and a pencil were given to each youth and they were asked to draw the macroscopic world they were seeing on the top half of their paper. The drawing time gave us the opportunity to delve into how some of the organisms present could affect us if we drank the water and what other organisms and materials may be present at different sources such as the ocean, a river, or a swimming pool.
The class finished their drawings and we took our supplies and the water sample inside. I put a drop of the water sample on a microscope slide, making sure to include the particulates that had filtered to the bottom of the bucket. We had brought a digital microscope that included a small LCD screen to view the slide. In a larger group setting, this microscope could have been attached to a projector to show a greater audience. With our water sample under the microscope lens, we identified the materials and organisms. One of the highlights was when we found a mosquito larva and were able to use the highest magnification to view the blood platelets flowing through its open circulatory system. It wasn’t an original part of the lesson but an added bonus. Although some youth were disgusted by what they saw, the majority were fascinated and wanted to continue in the discoveries. The class was then asked to draw the microscopic organisms and particulates they had seen on the bottom half of their paper. We wanted to encourage the scientific fascination so after a quick explanation of how to use a microscope, the youth were free to continue searching for other organisms if they wished to during the allotted drawing time. We also discussed how some of the organisms they had seen impact our health and environment.
Although many of the youth were comfortable drawing what they saw, there were a few in each class that didn’t feel confident in their drawing skills. We encouraged them in different ways including saying perfection was not the goal and joking that it could be called abstract instead. The time constraint also helped encourage the youth that weren’t as confident drawing because they understood high quality drawings could not be expected in the given time.
Water color pencils were distributed after the initial drawings were done so the campers could fill in the color. While they were coloring, I poured our water sample into several cups and passed them around with paint brushes. The youth then created the water color painting by brushing the water sample over the water color pencil areas. While painting, they remarked on how the particulates from the pond water changed both the texture and color of their painting. We talked about how the results would be different if they had used another water source and they were overflowing with ideas.
Their views on whether they were willing to drink the pond water were drastically different from when we started the class. Not one camper wanted to drink the water and many were quick to offer their explanations why.
We ended with a quick evaluation to gauge how their opinions about both art and science had changed after taking the class. Some of the highlights from the evaluation include:
- • 71.11% agreed or strongly agreed science is not boring after taking this class.
- • 76.09% agreed or strongly agreed they want to learn more about science as a result of this class.
- • 63.64% agreed or strongly agreed they would do more art in their free time because of this class.
The evaluation method was also an experiment for our program. We were trying to encourage higher levels of participation since regular paper survey evaluations are turned down by a large percentage of attendees normally. Instead, we had larger flip chart papers with each evaluation question stuck to the wall with columns for strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. Each youth was given a set of numbered stickers to share their opinion. This made the evaluation more engaging while remaining anonymous and encouraged more honest opinions. It was an extremely successful evaluation method that I will continue to use in the future.
After successfully conducting the class with 4th to 8th grade youth, we decided to offer it at a day camp for youth ages 5-8. The concepts were simplified but the class was still a high level science lesson for youth in this age group. They still discussed what the water sample contained, defined terms such as microscopic and macroscopic, learned how to use a microscope, and exceeded our expectations for their ages. These youth were not formally evaluated but from my individual conversations and the group discussions, I observed that the youth were engaged and excited about the entire class.
Since conducting the classes, this concept has been taught at the American Camp Association (ACA) 2017 Oregon Trail Fall Education Event where camp staff and directors from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho all enthusiastically agreed that they would like to incorporate it in their own classes. It will also be taught at the Western Regional Leaders Forum held in San Diego, CA in March 2018.
I am excited to expand this lesson into several 4-H camp STEM classes in the future. I believe that bridging the gap between art and STEM has proven itself to be a sound method for teaching “boring” science concepts to campers in an innovative and engaging way.
Elli Korthius is a 4-H Youth Development Educator for Benton County, Oregon.
by editor | Sep 16, 2025 | Environmental Literacy, Marine/Aquatic Education, STEM, Teaching Science
Bringing the Ocean into the Schools…and Schools to the Ocean
By Catherine and Joachim Carolsfeld
“I like the discoveries of the sea tank each time I look at it.”
(10 year old Elementary School Student)
“Some specimens in our tank that are local I didn’t even know of, and I’ve been around the oceans since I was really little.”
(Grade 11 student)
A few years back, a group of elementary school students in Victoria noticed an empty salmon tank in their classroom. They wondered: could it be used to study a marine ecosystem?
Those students didn’t stop too long to wonder. Instead, they became the driving force behind setting up and caring for a chilled, saltwater aquarium in their school. Parents and other community volunteers, some of whom were marine biologists and divers, helped find the chiller, pump and other supplies they needed to build a prototype tank. Then they obtained the necessary permits to stock it with plants and animals from their local shorelines, and students began to study their new ocean ecosystem.
Six months later, they decided to share what they had learned with the rest of their community. They chose a school assembly to make their presentations about the plants and animals they had been getting to know, and invited their parents to listen.
Jamie, a grade seven student who had been loathe to engage in classroom learning, spoke with passion and enthusiasm about a nondescript marine animal called a sea squirt for which he had gained new-found respect. A parent sitting in the audience commented, “That can’t be right. They’re just creatures, not animals!”
Creatures as Teachers
By the end of the assembly, that parent knew that creatures like the lowly sea squirt were animals, and they were teachers too. Students, staff and parents had already begun to think about their world in a different way, thanks to the passion and commitment of those grade six and seven students. We began to understand the power of our youth as educators, and the seed for Seaquaria was planted.
British Columbians are all proud of the marine and freshwater habitats that help define our province and our identity. Yet many of us under-value the aquatic wealth at our doorsteps, and are unaware of how our activities affect oceans, rivers and lakes in our own communities. As population growth continues to stress aquatic ecosystems, British Columbians who care about maintaining their waters for future generations need to be aware, to be concerned, to act. How can educators help?
As educators, we have a duty to create opportunities for our youth to discover the beauty and complexity of their world for themselves. Only then can we expect them to begin to understand and value their world, and to want to take the steps needed to protect it.
How do we create this desire to change how we think and behave? The example of those first “Seaquaria pioneers” back in 1999 showed that the school system can be very effective, and on two levels: by reaching youth during their formative years, and through ‘vertical learning’ where these students, as loveable messengers, take their lessons home and to the general public. However, careful thought has to go into how we engage students as messengers. While there are many excellent educational resources and programs that can be utilized in British Columbia (Snively, 1998, 2001; Arntzen et al, 2001; Boire et al, 2003; Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2002), many schools still rely on the “three Ps”: Passive teaching, with Printed materials and Preserved specimens. This approach sparks little enthusiasm and often uses examples far removed from the local environment (Orion, 1993; Orion et al, 1997). Common problems with the “three Ps” approach include lack of a local “hook” for the students, lack of continuity with other materials, and the scarcity of integrated and easy-to-use formats.
Seaquaria in Schools is one successful example of a more effective approach that we call “active learning” (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). In active learning, students are involved in discovery through field trips and “place-based learning” (Gruenewald, 2003) that begins right in their own classrooms and communities (Cummins & Snively, 2000; McBean & Hengeveld, 2000).
Why Seaquaria?
In 2000, a group of southern Vancouver Island environmental educators decided to combine water-themed programs (e.g. “Opening Minds with Water”) into a more integrated package that stressed ecosystems. They produced an integrated package of field and classroom activities which is called “Living Watersheds.”
At the same time that “Living Watersheds” was starting out, WestWind SeaLab Supplies, a local biological supply company, decided to take the idea of aquaria in schools beyond the freshwater salmon tank that the previous year’s students had put to such good use. Freshwater tanks had long been used to raise baby salmon as part of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ “Salmonids in the Classroom” program (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 1998), but Westwind decided to go a step further: –to place chilled seawater aquaria (“Seaquaria”) in schools.
WestWind’s first Seaquarium was just a seasonal conversion of a salmon aquarium, but the marine creatures were so popular that an aquarium designed specifically for saltwater was soon built, stocked with a local marine ecosystem, and maintained throughout the year by the students.
A new showpiece for the school had been created; ever since, students have been able to study the ocean environment “almost as if they were a part of it,” and have eagerly shared their learning along the way.
“Seaquaria in Schools” is about enrichment of education. In each participating school, the Seaquaria tanks are permanent fixtures that afford a unique window into the local marine environment. Because the aquaria are continually available to the students, they can be used to weave environmental awareness into the students’ everyday lives – no matter what the season. Learning outcomes are met easily, in an ever more engaging fashion. They are also a springboard to new learning opportunities; their impact is limited only by the imagination of the children and their teachers.
The marine ecosystem in Seaquaria is ever-present and ever-changing, an exceptionally effective catalyst that draws students into hands-on learning. With aquaria over 60 gallons (240 litres) in size, the systems are remarkably stable, each evolving their own character over 3-6 month periods. As students care for their aquarium, they build an understanding and respect for the organisms in their care, and they develop the stewardship skills essential for the preservation of our natural resources.
Husbandry sheets for the different organisms and the aquaria themselves are continually evolving, with student and teacher input. As students learn to deal with everything from slowly changing conditions to sudden spawning and other unexpected emergencies, they also begin to formulate personal, ethical values and develop important problem solving skills. Related programming helps them recognize interconnectivities, and to link their insights and skills to the real world. In so doing, the aquaria foster a passion for learning and critical thinking in many areas of the students’ lives, which is anchored in responsible environmental stewardship.
Cummins and Snively (2000) link success in learning to the availability of opportunities that are personally meaningful to students. The Seaquarium is an excellent real-world example of their findings: it has been described as a “gateway” to community-wide learning initiatives, with many “hooks” that help achieve successful learning. These hooks include local context (creates a “sense of home”), opportunities to interact with living organisms (adds a feeling of personal connection), a venue to observe the novelty and complexity of nature, and endless opportunities for acquiring and sharing special knowledge. In addition, the basic “user-friendliness” of Seaquaria means they have come to be appreciated as manageable tools that remove some of the ‘fear of science’ at the elementary and middle school levels (Carolsfeld, 2001).
Increasing awareness of environmental issues in the Asia Pacific Region suggests that these countries of immense marine riches may be another natural fit for Seaquaria – especially at a time when the marine environment is increasingly stressed. In Japan, for example, numerous new environmental initiatives involve school children (www.japanfs.org). An Asia Pacific-Canadian exchange based on Seaquaria would introduce an open-learning tool into a non-Western society. The experience would afford rich opportunities for research, helping us to better monitor, evaluate and define the most successful common approaches to meaningful environmental education.
Victoria West Elementary School Marine Team gathers together to help celebrate the unveiling of the Victoria West Visions map.
Mentoring in Action
Here, we introduce a few representative classroom and field programs that illustrate the basic framework for our approach. You might think of them as open-ended recipes—each with a unique flavor that reflects individual teachers, classrooms, schools, communities and ecosystems.
Project by grade 6 students, Lansdowne Middle School, Victoria, B.C.
1. The Marine Team
The phone rings at work and the voice of an anxious elementary school student greets me. Their beautiful Painted Anemone has a death grip on their lumbering but lovable Sea Cucumber. What should they do? I suggest that they wash and rinse their hands well, so that they don’t introduce any harmful chemicals into their ecosystem, reach into the tank, and gently remove the cucumber from certain death. “No…” they say, “we need Joseph,” a younger, but experienced student who they have identified as their first line of contact in times of emergency. They say that they will take care of it and I ask them to call me back.
Thinking like an ocean.
Ten minutes later the phone rings again. The cucumber is safe. Joseph has gently rescued their team mascot from certain death and with skill and compassion, placed the anemone into a bucket of seawater and into the refrigerator. They wonder if they should send their anemone to the WestWind seawater system. They think it is too big and aggressive to live in their Seaquarium. They recognized that the Painted Sea Anemone, a high level predator with stinging tentacles, was tipping the balance point of the ecosystem in their tank.
These eight to ten year old students have taken their job as Seaquarium guardians very seriously. Just as Cummins and Snively (2000) have documented, they are learning to work co-operatively, to learn at a deeper level and to hone their leadership skills as they encounter problems that need to be solved—largely because of the deep emotional tie they have developed with the animals and plants in their Seaquarium.
We begin our classroom studies by introducing our stewards to the job at hand: caring for an ecosystem full of plants and animals that share many of the needs the students have, but who have to meet those needs for food, shelter, protection, and nurturing in very different ways than we do. In this way the students also begin to think about how different creatures are adapted to the world they live in, and to appreciate the diversity of life. The conversation includes their responsibility to care for these unique neighbours and to share their new knowledge with others in the community.
In this way, the students begin to notice and understand how these creatures meet their needs, while also honing their observational skills. They also become very adept at troubleshooting and recognizing signs that the system is not working as well as it should, so that it can be fixed before any problems arise. The discoveries made during these routine checks prompt many interesting discussions, and often lead to new projects and announcements that help the rest of the school benefit from what they are learning.
Together, we set up teams of students who are responsible for monitoring the health and well being of their Seaquarium. Then we set up a marine team log book with data sheets, a feeding schedule and a list of community contacts in case of emergencies. Each day, they record the group name, date, time, temperature, salinity, water colour, water and air flow, whether the tank has been fed and any other observations that they think are important (for example, the behaviour of the animals).
Before we know it, links to nearly all areas of study, including science, language arts, social studies, math and personal planning, begin to emerge. As students meticulously log information each day, their observational skills are honed and they begin to notice connections. Soon they begin to submit articles to the school newsletter, make announcements on the PA system, offer guided tours to teachers and younger students and start training the next teams, so that the entire school community becomes aware of the exciting events happening in the aquarium.
2. A Picture Book Project
Picture book projects have been very successful and powerful learning tools at all grade levels, because they allow students time to carefully observe, gently touch, and get to know animals and plants from their seaquarium, in a very personal and respectful way. Only after doing their own observations do they begin their research about the natural history of the creature they have chosen. They quickly realize that it’s not always easy to find answers to their questions, and that they might actually be the one to discover something that’s seldom, if ever, been seen before.
This particular project was especially powerful because students used their self-published books to teach others about what they had learned. In this way, the Seaquaria program also helped develop students’ leadership and reading skills. We still use these books as classroom resources, and can’t begin to count the number of adults who have read them when they are on display at public events. The most common comment is “I had no idea….”
3. Liaison with field trips
The fit between Seaquaria and complimentary field programs of the “Living Watersheds” was a natural one, and the two have worked together ever since. New networks of community partners have provided innovative expertise and resources that make the classroom presentations and field studies relevant and exciting.
The connections between the classroom and the outside world have parallels with the connections between the aquarium and the ocean, and bringing the enhanced sensitivity and knowledge of the Seaquarium teams into established field programs has remarkable synergistic effects.
4. Community Connections
The students primed by the Seaquaria are exceptional resources for contributing to environmental awareness in the community and even community planning. As one example, I received a phone call from the manager of our local Community Center who informed me that the center was planning its first neighborhood celebration. Since some of their daycare students were on the Seaquarium Marine Team at the local school, he wondered if we could set up a display at their event.
In short order, students, staff, parents and community educators worked together to refurbish and set up a Seaquarium at the Community Centre. Grade six and seven students then introduced several hundred visitors to the weird and wonderful creatures they had been studying all year. Our youth were the centre of attention. At the end of the day, one of the students commented, “I didn’t know how much I knew, until I realized that I could answer a lot of questions from adults who didn’t know as much as I did”.
Since then, Seaquaria displays hosted by university, high school and public school students have continued to draw enthusiastic crowds not only at Vic West Fest, but also at conferences and other public venues throughout Victoria.
A second example is the development of important links between schools and their neighbourhoods, which often extend into the global community. We had been working with local teachers to develop a simplified mapping project which would help our students become better acquainted with their neighbourhood and to share this knowledge through their maps. As they walked the shoreline in their community, they recorded observations about features ranging from the temperature, salinity and turbidity (suspended particles) of the seawater at various locations, to aspects of Indigenous cultures and natural history along the waterway, and determining compass direction based on local land features and the position of the sun.
At the same time, the local community centre was embarking on a “Community Mapping Project”, in which local residents identified assets and areas of concern in their neighborhood as a basis to determine a long term vision for their community. They wanted to involve students at the local elementary school in the process, and get their input. After talking to the teacher and seeing the high quality work the students had done, the community association invited students to a community mapping workshop to teach adults about the important work they had been doing.
The result: on a beautiful spring day potentially full of other fun activities, several students presented their work to a gym full of adults from their community, proudly led them on a guided tour of their shoreline community, and highlighted the important features they had discovered on their journey that year.
Some of their work has been incorporated into the “Victoria West Visions Map,” now prominently on display throughout the neighbourhood, and published by Ground Works (www.lifecyclesproject.ca/reso urces/map_vic_west.php). It is a glowing example of the networks that open up as we offer opportunities for our youth to become engaged in the natural world around them.
Assessment of Seaquaria in Schools
When we began our journey, our basic premise was that the simple learning of facts does not necessarily translate into knowledge or passion. We were convinced that the actual process of learning is much more important to the successful development of life-skills than simple memorization. While the kind of rote learning that still prevails in many parts of the world has largely been discredited, we wanted to go a step further: to show that teachers need not even know or teach all of the facts in order to use a tool like the Seaquarium. ‘Knowing all the facts’ might even be viewed as an obstacle to success
We found the Seaquarium to be a model of open-ended learning; as teachers became more comfortable with it they began to find more ways to promote a spirit of enquiry and personal involvement in their students. Teachers now tell us this open-endedness has been one of the key components of the improved learning taking place in their classrooms. They also feel strongly that their students are acquiring the skills to make informed decisions about complex environmental issues, and understanding that such decisions cannot be made in isolation from social and economic realities. As a final bonus, teachers find that, by engaging so many of their previously reluctant learners, they are meeting their prescribed learning outcomes with less stress.
How do we know the Seaquaria program is working? First, students are eager to learn. Second, they are beginning to ask questions about connections in the world around them, using vocabulary like organism, habitat, predator-pry, food chains/webs, ecosystem, decomposition and bacteria, in a knowledgeable and understandable manner. These questions are formulated in a logical, scientific manner, often with novel insights. Finally, they are finding novel ways to share their learning with both local and global communities.
The Importance of Partnerships
Thanks to very active partnerships between teachers and other professionals in the community, there are now Seaquaria programs specific to elementary, middle and secondary schools. Seaquaria have clearly demonstrated the value of a focal tool or anchor that is relevant to communities – in this case the B.C. coast. But the same approach of local content, recognition of knowledge and enquiry, and active participative learning can be used with other aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems anywhere in the world, using tools that are relevant and practical within the particular environment. The possibilities – and the partnerships – are endless!
For example, our first overseas initiative involved trials with communities along inland waterways in Brazil as part of a CIDA-funded sustainable fisheries project (www.worldfish.org). Chilled marine aquaria were not appropriate for this location. However a combination of mapping of personal environmental spaces, local field trips, and watershed models worked well in the context of poor fishing communities on a Brazilian river, also providing opportunities for place-based, active and interactive participatory learning. The two programs operated in dramatically different situations—different languages and significantly different ecosystems. Nonetheless, the results were gratifying and eye opening as the Brazilian students responded to the Seaquaria approach just the same as Canadians.
In both Canadian and Brazilian projects, valuing personal knowledge and enquiry of the local environment enhances self-esteem and confidence, which leads to improved learning and emotional ties to the environment. And the learning continues to go in both directions: not only have many of the lessons learned in Canada been adjusted to suit the situation in Brazil, we are also already bringing back experiences that help our local programs evolve to new levels. We believe that the networks that are thus being established will be part of the foundation for a generation of respectful, informed and pro-active global environmental ambassadors (NEETF, 2002).
All the teachers involved in Seaquaria agree that partnerships and community involvement have played critical roles in the program’s overall success. The most successful individual programs were established in schools in which everyone was involved in planning and implementation right from the start. A good example was Victoria West Elementary School in Victoria, where students, staff, administrators, parents and community facilitators worked together throughout the process.
But there is always room for improvement. We have continued to build new partnerships that create synergies between Seaquaria classroom activities and related field programs. There is now a teacher-driven effort to provide mentoring for new schools and teachers in the Seaquaria program, and to share learning, ideas, barriers and success stories. In this way, a powerful spontaeous network has begun to emerge, and we feel confident the program will soon be self- sustaining.
What are some of the concrete returns from these partnerships in learning? The list is long, but perhaps most importantly includes enthusiastic appreciation and respect for terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms, their needs and stewardship care. Students begin to think about their world in a whole-ecosystem way. The relationships between these same organisms and humans become clearer, and this understanding promotes an enduring ethic of respect and conservation. Along the way, teachers witness increased interest in learning; improved utilization of existing educational resources; and improved academic performance.
Acknowledgements:
We gratefully acknowledge the continuing collaboration and support of Nikki Wright, of the SeaChange Marine Conservation Society; World Fisheries Trust; WestWind SeaLab Supplies; the Victoria Foundation; the Pacific Salmon Foundation; Don Lowen and Tom Rutherford –
Fisheries and Oceans Canada community advisors; and a multitude of teachers and students. Special thanks to Brian Harvey for his magical editing skills.
This work has been supported in part by the Centres for Research in Youth, Science Teaching and Learning (CRYSTAL) grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
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Snively, G. (1998). Beach explorations: A curriculum for grades 5-10. Oregon Sea Grant Program. Corvallis, OR, U.S.A. and Washington Sea Grant Program. Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Wright, N. (2007, In Press). Eelgrass meadows as teachers. Establishing Guidelines for Environmental Education based on Environmental Ethics, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research, Konan University, Kyoto, Japan.
by editor | Sep 15, 2025 | Adventure Learning, Conservation & Sustainability, Critical Thinking, Data Collection, Environmental Literacy, Experiential Learning, Forest Education, Homeschool, Inquiry, Outdoor education and Outdoor School, Place-based Education, Questioning strategies, STEM, Teaching Science
A Natural Fit: Homeschooling and the Establishment of a Research Forest
by Jess Lambright
For those open to an alternative educational path, a classroom with no walls or desks but instead trees, meadows, and streams, offers abundant opportunities for scientific exploration. My journey in outdoor education started by home-educating my own children, but soon expanded to include other students and families. Although making everyday a field day comes with certain challenges—such as very wet, cold winter days—it has also shown me how adaptable young people are, and how many spontaneous and fascinating learning opportunities present themselves when you commit to regular immersion in the natural world.
I have come to appreciate the vast range of possibilities in which students can acquire knowledge. While some homeschooling families follow packaged curriculum closely and monitor carefully to make sure their children meet state standards each year, others chose a less structured approach called unschooling, rooted in a deep trust for kids’ natural tendency and ability to learn. This philosophy can free a motivated young person to dive deeply into an ocean of learning powered by autonomy, inspiration, and infinite possibilities.
Connecting to place and stewardship of land
A multi-disciplinary unit study called My Tree and Me, where each student was connected with a specific tree which they measured (diameter, height, age) conducted secondary research about the species, wrote poetry, and created art with materials from the tree. One student decided to give his final poster presentation from the branches of the Cascara tree he had spent so many hours with.
The first outdoor program I hosted involved an established group of kids spending an entire day outdoors, once per week, for over four years. Week after week and year after year we returned to the same 40-acre woods from the first days of fall through the start of summer. It was common for our group to wander through the forest, without a destination or agenda, letting our innate curiosity lead the way. Wandering freely, with open eyes, allowed us to get in touch with what excited us and created opportunities for true discovery (Young et al., 2010, 56).
It filled me with satisfaction to watch the deep connection to place that developed over time in each of us. Monuments and landmarks, like a circle of giant old moss-covered stumps towards the southwest corner of the forest, acquired names and memories and provided comfort and familiarity when they were encountered. We would experience the wet meadow as a place that requires rubber boots to traverse in the wet months, a beautiful explosion of white flowers and soft grasses that dance in the wind in the summer, and a sea of delicate purple camas flowers in the spring. One year we returned to the same sit spots week after week, recording changes in our journals as spring brought all the growing things to life.
Students pause to examine a pile of feathers they discovered while exploring the woods on a rainy day. The group came up with a series of questions about what happened and brainstormed ideas about how they could investigate further to potentially find answers.
Spending time on a particular piece of land, through the seasons and years, inevitably leads to a sense of kinship and creates an urge to protect and enhance the natural environment. It’s been rewarding to teach students about which plants are non-native and potentially harmful to the local ecosystem, then see them step up as guardians of the land. When we wander through the woods, sometimes they spot a pocket of invasives and if we’re lucky enough to be carrying long-handled loppers, the team of weed warriors can quickly level a patch of Himalayan blackberry. In addition to studying and exploring, offering students an opportunity to actively participate in land management elevates their sense of purpose and deepens their connection to the natural world.
Full Family Learning
Homeschooling naturally leads to multiple ages and families all learning together. In the early days of our homeschool outdoor program the adults often observed activities and supported logistics. But over time it became clear that we truly were a mixed-age group of learners and explorers. Treating everyone as learners equally can have the effect of empowering young people. Sometimes kids master skills quickly. teaching what they’ve learned to adults. And sometimes the best exchange comes not from experts, who have a deep and longstanding understanding of a concept- but those who have recently experienced the gift of insight.
Mixed age learning is a mutually beneficial relationship fostering growth in multiple ways. Adults sometimes shelter in the security of topics they already understand and avoid venturing into areas less familiar. Conducting scientific inquiry in nature is ideal for having a high ceiling and a low floor: everyone knows something, and no one knows everything! Cultivating a growth mindset, by creating an atmosphere where mistakes are celebrated as learning opportunities, and where having a question is as valuable as having an answer (Boaler, 2015, 11), pairs beautifully with immersive study in nature.
A team of researchers determine the percent meadow knapweed present in a one-meter plot square by examining each of 100 smaller squares for the plant of interest.
Authentic Curriculum
Each day that I meet a group of students in the natural world, I come prepared with a plan for that day. Sometimes my plans are elaborate and detailed, and sometimes they are less specific and open to input from my fellow adventurers. But without exception I am mentally prepared and openly delighted to be upstaged by the unexpected. Whether it is locating a dead porcupine after noticing an unusual smell, being suddenly pelted by large hail, being startled by the arrival of the cacophonous noise of a murder of crows, or being circled by two deer so distracted in their mating dance that they fail to notice us; being fully present for nature’s dramas is my top priority.
After waiting over a year for the soft tissue to decompose, students collect and sort bones from a deer that died of natural causes near the Bear Creek Wilderness.
One day, just as the families were arriving at the Bear Creek Wilderness, a truck with two wildlife professionals pulled up to examine a deer laying in the horse pasture adjacent to our meadow. Curious, we gathered to ask questions about what might have happened. When they offered to let us keep the recently deceased animal, we gladly accepted- and spent the day dragging it across the meadow into the woods, securing it with paracord, and setting up our two trail cameras to watch what would happen.
Each week we checked on the deer, and everyone brave enough to venture near got to experience first-hand what decomposition looks and smells like. The camera footage revealed a series of fascinating dramas involving a bobcat, opossums, neighborhood dogs, and finally turkey vultures. A year and half later we carefully collected the bones and spent hours sorting and reconstructing a full deer skeleton. Finally, we tried our hands at making bone tools. In my experience, the best learning opportunities are not planned or expected. But when we build regular rhythms and practices, it is possible to “lay the groundwork for the outbreak of authentic curriculum” (Sobel, 2008, 81).
Cultivating scientific inquiry
Students work to match specific leaves to nature journal pages. Each student found a leaf while wandering through the woods, then recorded details of that leaf in their nature journals using words, pictures and numbers. The leaves were collected, then each student selected a new leaf and found the corresponding journal page.
Getting to know a place, including its seasonal changes, provides a useful perspective when it comes to asking research questions. An invaluable tool to record and remember discoveries, questions and observations is the field notebook, or nature journal. Developing the habit of collecting data with pencil and paper while exploring the natural world takes ongoing dedication, is deeply personal, and will certainly evolve through the years if one continues the practice (Canfield, 2011, 187-200). Nature journaling techniques that involve close examination of specimens in order to draw them, often reveal details that would have been overlooked with a quick glace or photograph. Indeed, to truly get to know a specific plant species it is hard to imagine an activity more educational than carefully drawing each of its parts.
Foundational to scientific inquiry is the research question, or asking questions within the realm of science. There are plenty of valid and interesting questions that one might ask while pondering the wonders of nature, and it’s important not to shut down inquiry when a question like, “Does it make this tree happy when I climb it?” arise. If limited to knowledge bound by science, one may miss rich worlds of philosophy, spirituality, intuition, and other ways of knowing. Still, once we are ready plot our scientific course it’s useful to remind students that questions should be measurable (Laws & Lygren, 2020, 90-93).
At the start of a student-led wildlife study, one researcher, who had taken time to carefully read the manual and test out the equipment, teaches the other students how to label their memory cards and set up their trail cameras. This project was made possible by a generous grant from the Diack Ecology Education Program.
Research Methods
When guiding young people into the world of field research it is helpful to start with basic techniques and big picture, cross-cutting concepts. Keeping track of important details in a field notebook and not forgetting to record obvious but key information like the date and location takes practice before it becomes routine. Collecting data can be time consuming, but sometimes trying to interpret sloppily recorded field notes can lead to tedious and frustrating hours at home. Finding a doable and interesting research question, taking into account confounding factors, and dealing with the disappointment if all the hard work to apply different treatments on an invasive plant all result in similar outcomes, requires a certain level of maturity and commitment.
Digging into a full-fledged research project requires determination, perseverance, and time, but it is possible to introduce students to the exciting and fun parts without getting bogged down by details. I recently taught a research methods class to elementary and middle school students with the goal of having hands-on experience with sophisticated research equipment without requiring data analysis or report writing.
We practiced collecting samples, and at first, we recorded in our field notebooks all the important metadata. Inspired by collection and observation, but limited in time, we then simplified the process to maintain interest and focus. For the rest of our forest walk we collected whatever samples caught our eyes- and mentioned what we would record if we were doing a research project- but kept it fun and quick so we still had time to investigate them at the end with magnification. Keeping data collection fun and exciting for younger students makes for a useful introduction to scientific inquiry and sets them up for conducting their own research in the future.
Students collect carbon dioxide and pH data from a patch of earth using equipment funded by the Diack Ecology Education Program during a research methods class with Wild Alive Outside.
Student-Led Research
In my experience, homeschoolers have a low tolerance for contrived activities, busywork and doing things for a grade. Any activity, assignment or project needs to be authentically meaningful. While it may be hard to force them to fill out a worksheet recording what we just discussed, they often thrive with open-ended activities and projects they can direct. It’s important to provide the appropriate scaffolding, and offer examples, but I have been impressed by how quickly and enthusiastically students construct their own research projects. As a mentor, I sometimes struggle with finding balance between requiring them to do something ‘right’ and encouraging critical thinking along with a safe place to fail, each of which are valuable learning experiences. Allowing students to take ownership in the learning process enhances the development of scientific thinking.
Once, a student created an elaborate plan to attract birds for his trail camera research project involving dead trees, peanut butter, and bird seed. There was tangible disappointment when the resulting images revealed many more rodents than birds, but it led to a new series of questions as well as an understanding about wildlife activity in that area. Field science is almost always iterative in nature, with new questions emerging from initial data and, ideally, the opportunity to inquire further and collect more data. With guidance and partnership students integrate information while maintaining natural curiosity.
Expanded Educational Support
Last year our outdoor program, Wild Alive Outside, received its first infusion of grant-funded scientific equipment. The Diack Ecology Education Program financed a set a trail cameras for our students to study wildlife activity at the Bear Creek Wilderness. Access to high-quality equipment has been a game changer for our little research group. Students felt empowered to design their own experiments by having full control over one of the trail cameras and two high-capacity memory cards. In addition to learning what wildlife passed through the area of the forest or meadow they selected, they gained experience with organizing and analyzing digital data. For some, it was their first exposure to spreadsheets, and others had to push their edges to patiently examine each of hundreds of photos. After months of data collection and conducting secondary research on one of the many wildlife species they discovered, they created posters to present their findings.
Students carefully measure the water in the rain gauge to determine rainfall over the previous week. Data is later reported to the CoCoRaHS website as part of a nationwide citizen science initiative.
For several years now, each day on the land begins with checking the rain gauge. Because we only visit once per week, we often have several inches of rain to carefully measure and record in the notebook. This simple ritual wakes up scientific thinking: “remember to look straight on before taking a reading,” connects us to what’s been happening while we were away: “no wonder there’s standing water in the meadow,” and gives us access to site-specific long-term data. At the end of the water year, shortly after the start of autumn, we can look back at the data we’ve collected, compare it to previous years, and make predictions for when the rains might come that fall. Additionally, we report our data through a sophisticated citizen science program called CoCoRaHS – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network with thousands of other citizen scientists across the country. I have found students take data collection quite seriously when they know they are part of a larger community of scientists, all doing their best to produce accurate results.
After tackling a large patch of invasive blackberry bushes, the Weed Warriors celebrate their contribution to protecting the wet meadow in the Bear Creek Wilderness.
The Bear Creek Wilderness and Student Research Forest
My program design is to plant the seeds for creating a student research forest where young people will have ongoing opportunities to learn scientific methods of field research and contribute to an ever-increasing body of knowledge through their own efforts. Just as the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest welcomes graduate students and long-term ecological researchers and has amassed a wealth of knowledge and data about that site, we aim to support young emerging scientists with open minds and creative ideas to connect with place, nature, and make meaningful contributions to science within a community of knowledge seekers. Participants gain foundational skills together as they engage with the land, utilize scientific tools, grow as learners, and share knowledge with each other.
References
Boaler, J. (2015). Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching. Wiley.
Canfield, M. R. (Ed.). (2011). Field Notes on Science and Nature. Harvard University Press.
CoCoRaHS – Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. Retrieved January 18, 2024, from https://www.cocorahs.org/
Diack Ecology Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.diackecology.org/
H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://andrewsforest.oregonstate.edu/
Laws, J. M., & Lygren, E. (2020). How to Teach Nature Journaling: Curiosity, Wonder, Attention. Heyday.
Sobel, D. (2008). Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators. Stenhouse Publishers.
In 2019, Jess Lambright started a nature school for homeschool families where once per week kids and parents spend all day outside learning wilderness skills, exploring, developing naturalist knowledge, conducting field studies, and connecting with nature, themselves, and each other. She founded Wild Alive Outside in the summer of 2023 with the goal of getting more youth outdoors to discover wonder and inspiration in the natural world through science, outdoor skills, and wilderness connection.
by editor | Sep 4, 2025 | Conservation & Sustainability, Environmental Literacy, Equity and Inclusion, Gardening, Farming, Food, & Permaculture, Indigenous Peoples & Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Place-based Education, STEM, Sustainability, Tribes & Traditional Ecological Knowledge
A Teaching Toolkit Connecting Students with Plants, Places, and Cultural Traditions
By Kim Gaffi, Mariana Harvey (Yakama) and Elise Krohn
Educating younger generations on the gifts of the land has always been a cornerstone of Indigenous teachings to strengthen mind, body, and spirit. As Skokomish Elder Bruce Miller said, “The Forest was once our Walmart.” The Pacific Northwest is teeming with wild edible berries, greens, roots, and seeds that are nutritionally superior to store-bought foods. Wild plants also provide medicine and materials for traditional technologies. Many common and accessible “weeds” are useful and can be found in our own backyards.
Tend, Gather and Grow (Tend) is a K-12 place-based curriculum dedicated to educating people about plants, local landscapes, and the rich cultural traditions that surround them. Tend focuses on native and naturalized plants of the Pacific Northwest region and includes Northwest Native knowledge, stories, and plant traditions. The curriculum toolkit consists of a teacher guide, six modules, videos, Coast Salish stories, plant identification cards, posters, games, recipes, and a garden guide. The 60+ lessons align with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics (STEAM) education principles and Next Generation Science Standards. Here’s a glimpse at the main curriculum modules:
- Plant Guide – This module covers 20 northwest plants and includes 38 hands-on lessons. Teachers can choose lessons based on what plants are available, in season, and most relevant to students. Each plant overview contains information on identification, seasonality, where the plant grows, human uses, and ecological relationships. A K-12 lesson called Dandelion: The Useful Weed introduces students to the lifecycle of dandelion, how it improves soil quality, and how it benefits insects, grazing herbivores, and people. Two lessons for 6th to 12th graders dive deeper into making food and medicine from dandelions. Plants that are at risk for overharvest have not been included in the curriculum unless there is a specific emphasis on restoration
- Cultural Ecosystems Field Guide – This module is about reframing the settler/dominant narrative about Northwest Coast Native People. Typically, Native Communities in the Northwest have been characterized as hunter-gatherers. This is not an accurate representation, and erases the deep-time relationships and land cultivation practices of Native People. This module includes an overview lesson on cultural ecosystems and a field guide to camas prairies, saltwater beaches, food forests, wetlands, and urban landscapes. Students learn about reciprocity and explore how they might both receive the gifts of the land and give back to the land.
- The Herbal Apothecary – This module includes techniques for harvesting, processing, and preparing medicinal plants. Topics include herbal teas, infused vinegars, honeys, poultices, infused oils and salves, herbal baths, and aromatherapy.
Plant Technologies – This module investigates how plant qualities have been used for millennia to create human technologies. Students explore ways to gather, process, and make useful items including cordage, baskets, mats, tools, and dyes from plant materials. Lessons are rooted in STEAM concepts.
- Tree Communities – This module introduces common Northwest trees and how they are valued for food, medicine, and traditional technologies. Themes include tree identification, ecological relationships, and life skills that we can learn from trees including generosity, building community, willingness, adaptability, and resilience.
- Wild Food Traditions – This module engages students with native and wild foods from a Coast Salish perspective. Seasonal lessons include spring wild greens, summer berries, healthy snacks in fall, and traditional beverages in winter. Native American stories, cultivation practices, ethical harvest techniques, and recipes are woven throughout lessons.
Our Tend, Gather and Grow development team (photo left) includes twelve people sharing a common passion for connecting people with plants, the land, and cultural traditions. Several of our team members have worked together in tribal health and natural resources programs and half are Indigenous. Over the years we have heard consistent requests for educational resources designed for youth. The Tend curriculum is our effort to meet that need. Collectively, we have knowledge and skills in teaching, environmental education, Northwest Native culture and storytelling, ethnobotany, herbal medicine, traditional technologies, art, media, social justice, and youth advocacy. Our team met monthly for several years to study plants in the seasons and co-design lessons and activities. Co-developing the curriculum has been an opportunity for our team to be in community with each other, share our love of plants, deepen our knowledge, and support each other along the way. We also worked with Native Elders, cultural specialists, and other regional experts in developing lessons—especially regarding storytelling and plant technologies. The curriculum includes quotes and instructions from these individuals.
Tensions
There are inherent tensions in non-native people using this curriculum, including concerns of cultural appropriation and misuse of plants and cultural landscapes. The curriculum exists, as we all do, within a painful and persistent history of colonialism, white supremacy, and systematic oppression. Historic and ongoing colonial settler practices negatively impact Native People and their traditional lands. Plant communities have changed drastically and many important cultural foods and ecosystems are diminished and difficult to access. Cultural appropriation and a misuse of knowledge among settler communities has undermined tribal sovereignty in several ways, including researchers claiming copyright authority over Indigenous knowledge and the overharvest of plant communities. For instance, as the health benefits of mountain huckleberry are more broadly learned, huckleberry stands cultivated by Native Peoples for thousands of years have been damaged and overharvested by non-native foragers and commercial harvesters.
To address these tensions, the Tend team has collaborated with tribal Elders and cultural knowledge keepers to ensure that information in the curriculum is appropriate to share broadly. Some plants and plant knowledge have been purposefully left out. All stories and plant teachings are included with permission from the storyteller or plant knowledge keeper. We have also created a video called Honoring Plants, Places, and Cultural Traditions that features Indigenous educators offering tools and advice to teachers wanting to use the curriculum. The Tend, Gather and Grow Teacher Guide and trainings support educators in adopting the curriculum responsibly. The toolkit also encourages educators and young people to be advocates and allies for Northwest Native peoples, tribal sovereignty, and cultural ecosystems. Lastly, we are encouraging schools to integrate featured plants from the curriculum in schoolyards and have created an Ecosystem Garden Guide that includes plant lists and basic garden installation directions.
Ways People are Using the Curriculum
T
end is adaptable to multiple learning environments, cultures, languages, participant ages, and abilities. We encourage educators and students to explore and add specificity around local language, culture, stories, and places as appropriate. We believe that cultural diversity is part of our richness as people. Educators can create opportunities for immigrant students to share their knowledge and traditions as well, and plant uses from around the world are included in the curriculum to encourage this.
The Tend curriculum is being implemented in a variety of settings including tribal schools, non-tribal schools, health and wellness programs, behavioral health programs, youth camps, and informal educational settings. Educators are also using Tend in various ways that meet their learning goals, fit their environment, and follow their students’ interests. Some schools focus on a plant each month (Wild Rose in September, Cattail in October, Doug Fir in November, etc). Some teachers are integrating Tend lessons into other courses like agriculture, nutrition, biology, ecology, social studies and the Since Time Immemorial Tribal Sovereignty curriculum. Teachers can also choose lessons and modules to accompany existing nearby landscapes like camas prairies or saltwater beaches and/or gardens or to accompany the creation of an ethnobotanical garden. Tend can also be the centerpiece of a full year-long course and we’ve designed a 180-hour Career Technical Education framework called Tend, Gather and Grow – Ethnobotany & Natural Resources Management to support this.
Tend Tribal Educator Cohorts
The Tend team has facilitated year-long tribal community educator cohorts where 16–20 educators from Washington tribes gather monthly for full-day workshops. Our first two internships focused on serving Western Washington tribes and this year we are honored to work with tribes from the Plateau region.
The Plateau internship includes seventeen tribal food gatherers, teachers, community educators, birth justice advocates, Indigenous language teachers, Elders, and youth who represent Yakama Nation, Colville Confederated Tribes, Kalispel, Nez Perce, Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene Tribe. This internship is led by GRuB’s Wild Foods and Medicines Tribal Relations Lead, Mariana Harvey (Yakama) and Traditional Plants Educator and Tend development team member, Elizabeth Campbell (Spokane/Kalispel).
This internship meets regularly over the year to integrate the Tend curriculum into various communities, schools, and programs. Participants also build teaching and group facilitation skills, learn about how to identify, harvest, and prepare many local plants, attune to the seasons, deepen a connection to the land, practice storytelling skills, and more.
Often the most enriching outcome for these tribal internships is the community and relationship building among the participants. Our participants are leaders within the tribal food sovereignty movement and it is a lot of work to carry. We hear that our gatherings feel like a ‘retreat’ where people can learn together, share ideas, and deepen bonds to each other and the earth. Gatherings take place in each participating tribal community, allowing us all to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s tribal history, culture, and of course foods and medicines! While we were in Spokane, a common highlight among participants was hearing a traditional story about the tamarack tree. When we were in Yakima, many remarked that it had been a very long time since they had eaten many of the roots that were served that day, and others were eating them for the first time. There is joy that radiates from our participants after our gatherings and the beauty is they bring that joy and spark of knowledge back home to their communities. ❀
Learning about and from plants has been a wonderful foundation to connect with my students and colleagues, since it’s something everyone can relate to on some level. I have been especially moved hearing stories that have been shared by experts in the field, native teachers/elders, as well as unique family stories that have emerged from my students, colleagues, and friends.
–Charlie Sittingbull, North Thurstaon High School Science Teacher
Photos by Elise Krohn
by editor | Sep 2, 2025 | Critical Thinking, Learning Theory, STEM, Teaching Science, Technology
by Kathryn Davis
According to the United Nations, each year enough plastic is thrown away to circle the earth four times, and these plastics can take over 1000 years to degrade! Sobering facts such as these and images illustrating the devastating effect of plastic waste on wildlife can leave many feeling paralyzed and hopeless.
While there are startling examples of the negative impact humans have had on the earth, there are also stories of innovation and incredible problem solving. I shared with my students the story of the engineer in India who created edible utensils, replacing plastic forks and knives with cutlery that is both delicious and eco-friendly, and the graduate student designing biodegradable clamshell containers from actual clamshells. I want my students to be inspired by these stories, and to feel hopeful that through human innovation and design, we can begin to tackle problems and make changes that can alter our current environmental trajectory.
This is why I’m so excited about the Engineering Design Performance Standards from the NGSS. These standards are the perfect way for students to learn how to design solutions to real problems we face as a society. Often in science classes we bring awareness to issues such as climate change and pollution, but we may fail to arm students with the tools they’ll need to design solutions to these problems. Engineering provides these tools and is also a way to engage even the most reluctant students. This year, I’m working with a group of high school students who have been unsuccessful in science in the past, and I was looking for a new way to help them connect with their learning.
Why Are We Learning This?
When I was introduced to Science and Innovation — The Boeing Company and Teaching Channel collaboration — through my work with the Tch NextGen Science Squad, I couldn’t wait to test drive the engineering-focused units with my own students. The ten units are geared toward middle school, the “sweet spot” for curriculum development. This curriculum can be easily adapted to fit both elementary and high school needs as well, by making modifications that will serve your students where they are academically.
I chose the Polymers for the Planet unit because it had a direct connection to what my students were already learning about photosynthesis, yet provided a real world application. In this unit, students use biopolymers (starches) to develop and test a bioplastic. Yes, we’ve all learned that plants make food, but what else can we do with those glucose molecules? What useful products can be developed from the starches created by plants? And how can this help solve a major environmental problem?
This unit allows me to answer that ever-present question in the classroom: Why are we learning this? How does this apply to my life?
I reached out to Jessica Levine, one of the authors of the curriculum and the teacher highlighted in the unit’s accompanying Polymers video, for tips and suggestions. She brought to my attention a great number of resources highlighting the environmental impact of plastics that allowed me to provide my students with some much-needed perspective on the state of our environment. It was so helpful to be able to reach out to her via Teaching Channel, and later to chat on the phone, exchanging ideas for how to best teach this unit.
Considerations For My Students
With any curriculum, teachers will always consider the unique needs of their students. Here are a few things I had to consider about my high school sophomores:
• The majority of my class is considered “at-risk,” in addition to being comprised of a high percentage of special education students and English language learners
• Collecting and analyzing data is challenging and they lack experience
• Using mathematical operations to analyze data will be difficult
• My students have reading skills that are at or below the eighth grade level
Conclusion: My students need a lot of scaffolding!
In order to scaffold, I provided tools to help my students “read to learn,” including an anticipation guide and Frayer model to guide them as they read about bioplastics. These strategies helped my students focus on what they already knew about the topic before reading, and then directed their attention to specific details while reading for background information. Instead of the provided notebook materials from the downloadable Polymers for the Planet unit plan, students continued to work in their classroom interactive notebook, where we recorded vocabulary, formulas, and data throughout the project.
We used the engineering design process diagram to keep us focused throughout the project. Each day we revisited this image and talked about where we were in the process, and where we were going next.
The CER Framework
Arguing from evidence using the CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) format is another new aspect of the NGSS Science and Engineering practices. To help my students, I provided graphic organizers to record their evidence, and used sentence frames to guide their reasoning to support a claim for their redesign. The opportunity for students to use evidence to drive their redesign was powerful — this process helped to solidify for them the importance of using data to drive decisions. After their prototypes were tested, they were eager to find out which formulas yielded the best results, and used this information to make new iterations to their design.
Surprising Outcomes
Here’s what we’ve discovered so far:
• When testing tensile strength of the bioplastics, the testing setup failed due to the large amount of weight that the plastics were able to withstand. This led to students engineering and redesigning the test itself! When the provided protocol failed them, they came up with creative solutions and collaborated in ways that I haven’t previously observed. When one group observed another struggling with the same issues, they collaborated to build new solutions and test ideas.
• Of course, not all of the bioplastics were easy to test for various reasons. But because students had a sense of ownership and wanted to test the product they designed, the level of problem solving I observed was far beyond that in previous lab activities. The students were motivated to test and gather data for their samples, and figured out how to make this possible, with very little help from me.
• I saw opportunities for individual students to shine who didn’t usually do so in class. One particular student became a creative problem solver and designed multiple ways to test tensile strength. He also helped other groups, showing an interest in class that I hadn’t previously seen.
We’re now at the stage of putting it all together. Students are creating presentations, and in an effort to motivate them to do their best, I’ve invited other adults (teachers, administrators, instructional assistants) to serve as an authentic audience to view the students’ presentations about their engineering design process. Wish them luck!
Kathryn Davis is a science teacher at Hood River Valley High School in Hood River, Oregon. She has been teaching science for 13 years. Kathryn is a Stanford graduate, Teach For America Bay Area alumni, and Amgen Biotechnology Experience teacher. She is currently working as a Professional Growth Coach for her school district and is excited to be a part of Teaching Channel’s Tch Next Gen Science Squad. Connect with her on Twitter: @biokathryn.
