Stream Health

Teacher Resources: Lessons, Programs, Professional Development

Lesson, tools for classroom and field study – streams

• Explore and Restore Maryland Streams
  
• Montgomery County Public Schools Stream / Pond Study: Students investigate the local watershed and work in groups to assess the health of a nearby stream or pond.
• Stream Science: Investigating Water Quality, Macroinvertebrate Survey & Stream Habitat Assessment (lesson materials exerpted from a larger program, GreenKids, Audubon Naturalists Society). Students conduct water quality monitoring of a local stream near their school and produce educational brochures about protecting local water quality.
• Bridging the Watershed is a program of the Alice Ferguson Foundation (AFF) in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) and area schools, designed to promote student academic achievement and environmental stewardship through hands-on curriculum-based outdoor studies in national parks and public lands. Lesson modules with background information are available online as well as park-specific curriculum units, to prepare students for their field studies and provide guidance for data analysis after a field study. AFF provides lesson plans, in-school visits, guided field experiences, and teacher professional development opportunities. Curriculum modules; Stream macroinvertebrate identification.
• Chesapeake Bay FieldScope – National Geographic Society provides a web-based mapping, analysis, and collaboration tool designed to support geographic investigations and to engage students as citizen scientists investigating real-world issues—both in the classroom and in outdoor education settings. NGS/FieldScope offers lessons, data collection guidance, programs, professional development and more.
• Save Our Streams (SOS), Izaak Walton League of America is a national clean-water education and outreach program, with a program in Maryland. Educators and citizen scientists can find information here about Biological Stream Monitoring, Water Quality Monitoring, Monitoring Equipment, and Stream Enhancement and Restoration. Tap into Creek Freaks, where groups of middle school kids perform stream monitoring in their communities.
• Storm Drain Stenciling is a service learning activity for your school, community association, 4-H, Scout, or other youth group. Maryland Department of Natural Resources offers stenciling materials on loan to educators and groups. New App! Upload the location of the drain to our storm drain mapping site. Students can be part of a statewide initiative to map all our storm drains, whether stenciled or not. Students can then visit the updated map to see their data input, and use it to spark more action projects!
• The Stream Scene: Watersheds, Wildlife and People (from Oregon, but applicable to Maryland with adaptation) – Aquatic education program, 550-page online guide for learning about watershed systems (upland, riparian, and aquatic areas) and aquatic life, with lesson plans and full complement of teacher resources for classroom and field investigations. See table of contents here.

Lesson plans – water, watershed, Chesapeake Bay

• Project WET (Water Education for Teachers): Worldwide Water Education – grades K-12. A trained network of teachers, resource professionals, and citizens organize and teach Project WET workshops throughout Maryland. Maryland DNR offers trainings and has aligned these materials to Maryland State Curriculum requirements.
• Community Science Action Guides: Water Savers Lesson Plans: Provides a variety of lesson plans for younger students on water conservation.
• EPA Lesson Plans: The Environmental Protection Agency offers several lesson plans and external resources on water.
• NAAEE Lesson Plans: The North American Association for Environmental Education offers a clearinghouse listing of educational materials and lesson plans for all grades PreK-12, on a wide variety of topics, including water, watersheds, oil spills, climate change, and more.

Additional educational resources

• Bay Backpack – The Chesapeake Bay Program maintains this growing collection of books, multimedia, curriculum guides, individual lesson plans online data sources and other teaching resources, locations for field studies, training, funding and more.
• Eyes on the Bay and Eyes on the Bay Mobile for Real-Time Data – Maryland’s site for Chesapeake Bay data and reports from monitoring water quality conditions such as salinity, dissolved oxygen, algal blooms and more.Includes lesson plans tohelp integrate science and environmental studies within the regular curriculum when studying Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Bays, using technology and current scientific data; and to facilitate authentic science and environmental investigations.
• MSDE Environmental Education ToolKit: Maryland State Department of Education offers resources to assist with meeting state environmental literacy standards: the Environmental Literacy Standards, Environmental Literacy Curriculum, Curricular Infusion By Grade-bands, a number of comprehensive lesson plans and ideas on environmental education for grades Pre-K to 8, and more guidance materials.
• Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education (MAEOE) provides links to teacher professional development opportunities, funding, and more resources for educators.