Earth Partnership offers tools for teachers learning how to guide their students, colleagues and community members through schoolyard restorations. Ten steps form the backbone of the Earth Partnership curriculum:
Curriculum Guides
Earth Partnership has innovative curriculum guides that direct interdisciplinary explorations in ecology and restoration. Guides are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core and encourage growth in science, math, literacy, art, social studies, and more.
- Restoration Education Guide
- Water Stewardship Guide
- Woodland Curriculum Guide
- Rain Garden Curricular Sampler
- Pollinator Habitat Guide
- Phenology Wheels
- Colaboración Ambiental Currículo
The Restoration Education Guide contains more than 100 lessons keyed to Common Core Standards and Next Generation Science standards. Ten chapters outline our 10-step process for building rain gardens and restoring native habitats.
The Water Stewardship Guide offers students a means to forge deeper connections to their watershed. Activities emphasize hydrology education, native plantings to restore water health, and water-quality monitoring. Steps include: Discovering species, habitats, and cycles; Exploring and Mapping watersheds; Inquiring, Investigating, and Monitoring as citizen scientists; Engaging in community action and service learning; Restoring native species and habitats; and Sharing data and projects.
The Woodland Curriculum Guide was developed by and for teachers and community members who wanted to do restoration education in wooded areas. Activities enhance understanding of woodland ecology and seasonal cycles and provide guidance for restoring vegetation in these areas.
The Rain Garden Curricular Sampler is drawn from the K–12 Curriculum Guide for designing and implementing a rain garden. Rain gardens catch and filter runoff that can otherwise cause erosion and spread pollution. They are an excellent way for schools, communities, and residents to make powerful change with a small space and minimal resources.
The Pollinator Habitat Guide builds on EP restoration curriculum, with specific guidance for restoring pollinator habitat on school grounds, farms, and community sites. This guide was made possibly by funding from Sand County Foundation, Enel Green Power North America, Inc., We Energies Foundation, and Monarch Joint Venture.
The innovative K–12 Phenology Wheel Curriculum enables students to rediscover sense of place through art, writing, and photography. Phenology is defined as the study of natural events—such as bird migration or fall leaf color—that recur periodically in relation to climate and seasonal change. It provides an investigative tool for studying a schoolyard or neighborhood, or even to enhance a woodland, grassland, or wetland as a high-quality wildlife habitat.
Georgia Gómez-Ibáñez of Cambridge Elementary School, Anne Forbes of Partners in Place, LLC, and Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong of Earth Partnership created Phenology Wheels for students to learn about seasonal events and cycles in an experiential way. Georgia, a K–12 environmental educator, developed, tested, and wrote the five phenology-based activities at her school. The activities are based on Anne’s Wheels of Time and Place, an attentive approach to keeping circular nature journals that works well for all ages and in all environments.
Select phenology wheel activities are available for download here (click link).
This Spanish language guide features translations of 22 EP activities, used in LEP and Global EP initiatives in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and beyond. Translation of this guide was made possible by support from the US EPA, Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation, and the Kemper-Knapp (UW-Madison) bequest.
Webinars
Additional Resources
IAS Selected Bibliography
Curated resources for American Indian studies, compiled for IAS educators. Materials are for K-12 learners, organized by grade level.