I taught my lesson on river food webs in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade classes. The Kettle River is an important part of the community, so a goal of my lesson was for the students to understand how the local freshwater organisms are all connected.
The lesson began with a review in small groups of the terms and definitions related to food webs (producer, primary consumer, and secondary consumer). The students also placed examples of freshwater organisms under each of the terms. Then as a class, we broke down the definition of aquatic macroinvertebrate and examples like dragonfly larva, water strider, and mayfly nymph.
Many of the students’ favorite activity of the lesson was the game outside called Aquatic Food Chain. The students were split into groups as “algae”, “aquatic macroinvertebrates”, and “fish”. The game demonstrated how the population size of one trophic level can affect the others. When there were very few aquatic macroinvertebrates, for example, many fish could not eat and their population crashed as a result. After discussing how these organisms were all connected, we went outside again to identify real aquatic macroinvertebrates. The students had magnifying glasses, spoons, and identification sheets to find out which types of aquatic macroinvertebrates were found in the Kettle River. They were able to conclude that the Kettle River is a healthy river, because the students found pollution-intolerant species in the water samples.
I enjoyed teaching my lesson on river food webs, and I think the students really enjoyed the hands-on activities. There is so much more to learn about this topic, and it is relevant to their community on the Kettle River, so I hope that they are able to learn much more in the future about the importance of aquatic macroinvertebrates for supporting river ecosystems and indicating water quality.
Since this was our first time going to Curlew with EASB, I did not know what to expect for the school and teaching in 5th through 8th grade. The sense of community in the school surprised all of us from the first day. There is only one class per grade, so the students have all grown up together and are all very close with each other and with their teachers. That atmosphere of collaboration and support was great for us coming in to teach for the week. I think that school atmosphere and sense of community inside and outside the classroom are so important for students’ learning and success. In the future as a teacher, I hope to foster that sense of community inside the classroom, as well as at the school-wide level and outside of the school.
The evening before my lesson, we spent a lot of time at the edge of the Kettle River collecting aquatic macroinvertebrates. It was difficult to find them at first, so I was worried about that activity in my lesson, but then once we started to spot them, we were able to find quite a bit! I was glad that my teammates were supportive in the search for the aquatic macroinvertebrates, and enjoyed feeling like kids looking for cool bugs!
In Curlew, we visited the general store, and on our final morning we went to breakfast at a little cafe right by the school. We also visited Curlew Lake, a huge antique market, and the blackened forest above town from the summer fire. We went to the town of Republic a few times throughout the week. We visited a cemetery with a beautiful view, a coffee shop & video store, and a nice trail for a run.
On Friday, there was a celebration in the school cafeteria with all four classes, the principal, and our coordinator. We handed out certificates to all the students and planted seeds in milk cartons and water bottles. We saw the great sense of community in the school once again in the celebration, and the school very kindly provided cupcakes for everyone and gave us Curlew wrestling sweatshirts!
I am going to graduate school to be an elementary teacher, so I will definitely be using what I have learned through EASB in my future career. Through this program, I have learned how to create hands-on environmental science lesson plans and how to incorporate place-based learning. Environmental science lessons are important at all ages. In my elementary classes, I plan to teach environmental science lessons that are hands-on and place-based.
I did not really know what to expect in Curlew because it was a new site this year, and I am happy with how much we were welcomed by the school and the community. I went to Brewster last year, and Curlew is a smaller community in a different environmental setting. Both of my experiences in EASB were amazing, and I have enjoyed learning about two different communities with two different groups of people! My teammates were really fun to be around, and I enjoyed working and going on afternoon adventures with them! I am grateful for these shared experiences through EASB, which allowed me to connect with people in other years and other departments at UW. I am so happy that I was able to spend spring break in Curlew and form these relationships with my teammates, the school, and the community.
-Mikayla Richardson
The lesson began with a review in small groups of the terms and definitions related to food webs (producer, primary consumer, and secondary consumer). The students also placed examples of freshwater organisms under each of the terms. Then as a class, we broke down the definition of aquatic macroinvertebrate and examples like dragonfly larva, water strider, and mayfly nymph.
Many of the students’ favorite activity of the lesson was the game outside called Aquatic Food Chain. The students were split into groups as “algae”, “aquatic macroinvertebrates”, and “fish”. The game demonstrated how the population size of one trophic level can affect the others. When there were very few aquatic macroinvertebrates, for example, many fish could not eat and their population crashed as a result. After discussing how these organisms were all connected, we went outside again to identify real aquatic macroinvertebrates. The students had magnifying glasses, spoons, and identification sheets to find out which types of aquatic macroinvertebrates were found in the Kettle River. They were able to conclude that the Kettle River is a healthy river, because the students found pollution-intolerant species in the water samples.
I enjoyed teaching my lesson on river food webs, and I think the students really enjoyed the hands-on activities. There is so much more to learn about this topic, and it is relevant to their community on the Kettle River, so I hope that they are able to learn much more in the future about the importance of aquatic macroinvertebrates for supporting river ecosystems and indicating water quality.
Since this was our first time going to Curlew with EASB, I did not know what to expect for the school and teaching in 5th through 8th grade. The sense of community in the school surprised all of us from the first day. There is only one class per grade, so the students have all grown up together and are all very close with each other and with their teachers. That atmosphere of collaboration and support was great for us coming in to teach for the week. I think that school atmosphere and sense of community inside and outside the classroom are so important for students’ learning and success. In the future as a teacher, I hope to foster that sense of community inside the classroom, as well as at the school-wide level and outside of the school.
The evening before my lesson, we spent a lot of time at the edge of the Kettle River collecting aquatic macroinvertebrates. It was difficult to find them at first, so I was worried about that activity in my lesson, but then once we started to spot them, we were able to find quite a bit! I was glad that my teammates were supportive in the search for the aquatic macroinvertebrates, and enjoyed feeling like kids looking for cool bugs!
In Curlew, we visited the general store, and on our final morning we went to breakfast at a little cafe right by the school. We also visited Curlew Lake, a huge antique market, and the blackened forest above town from the summer fire. We went to the town of Republic a few times throughout the week. We visited a cemetery with a beautiful view, a coffee shop & video store, and a nice trail for a run.
On Friday, there was a celebration in the school cafeteria with all four classes, the principal, and our coordinator. We handed out certificates to all the students and planted seeds in milk cartons and water bottles. We saw the great sense of community in the school once again in the celebration, and the school very kindly provided cupcakes for everyone and gave us Curlew wrestling sweatshirts!
I am going to graduate school to be an elementary teacher, so I will definitely be using what I have learned through EASB in my future career. Through this program, I have learned how to create hands-on environmental science lesson plans and how to incorporate place-based learning. Environmental science lessons are important at all ages. In my elementary classes, I plan to teach environmental science lessons that are hands-on and place-based.
I did not really know what to expect in Curlew because it was a new site this year, and I am happy with how much we were welcomed by the school and the community. I went to Brewster last year, and Curlew is a smaller community in a different environmental setting. Both of my experiences in EASB were amazing, and I have enjoyed learning about two different communities with two different groups of people! My teammates were really fun to be around, and I enjoyed working and going on afternoon adventures with them! I am grateful for these shared experiences through EASB, which allowed me to connect with people in other years and other departments at UW. I am so happy that I was able to spend spring break in Curlew and form these relationships with my teammates, the school, and the community.
-Mikayla Richardson