SAD 61 Learning Results Alignment

Lakes Environmental Association
Education Program Options
&
Maine Learning Results
for MSAD 61
Table of Contents
Introduction·····························································pg. 3
Education Program Summary·································pg. 4
Early Elementary Programs····································pg. 5
Place Program ························································pg. 6
Soil Science····························································· pg. 7
Living Connections Program ·································pg. 8
Field Studies for Middle School Students ··············pg. 9
Environmental Studies············································pg. 10
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Introduction
The goal of Lakes Environmental Association’s education program is to
encourage an understanding of and connection to place, with the belief
that a connection to the local environment
is the foundation for lasting environmental
stewardship. LEA’s place-based approach
to environmental education incorporates
important science skills to help students understand their environment. LEA’s continuous educational programming in MSAD 61
builds and reinforces understanding of scientific concepts over students’ educational careers.
LEA provides this guide to help teachers select and make the connections between LEA’s educational programs and state and local learning
results. This guide is organized by grade level, providing information
based on current and possible future programming for each grade. The
programs described herein are currently available and LEA educators
will work with individual teachers to design curriculum that specifically
meets standards and individual classroom needs.
A secondary goal for this guide is to provide teachers with information
about students’ science and environmental experiences in previous or
future grade levels. Awareness of what
students have learned or what they will
learn enhances continuous interdisciplinary learning across grade levels.
For more information on program
options or to schedule a program for
your classroom, please contact Bridie
McGreavy, 647-8580 or bridie@
leamaine.org.
3
LEA School-based Education Summary
The following table summarizes LEA’s projected educational efforts at each grade level by student and educator hours for the school year 2007-2008. A calculation of student hours in addition to the total number of students is included because this figure reflects time spent teaching
students over multiple class sessions. Although one-time educational programs can be meaningful, our approach generally employs a consistent series of educational experiences to build
and refine concept understanding.
Program
School
Classrooms Students*
Student
Hours**
Educator
Hours***
MSAD 61 Education Programs
Place Program, 4th grade
Stevens Brook Elementary
3
51
612
36
Soil Science, 5th grade
Stevens Brook Elementary
3
51
255
16
Crooked River Elementary
4
68
340
18
Stevens Brook Elementary
2
34
612
54
Crooked River Elementary
4
68
1,224
90
Hey You! Cruise
All MSAD 61 6th grades
8
136
306
20
Field Studies for Middle School
Students, 7th grade
Lake Region Middle School
10
170
2,040
140
Environmental Studies
Lake Region High School
1
8
216
54
29
484
5,605
428
NA
13
936
108
Waterford Elementary
1
17
306
36
Denmark Elementary (5th)
1
17
306
36
Harrison Elementary
2
34
612
54
All MSAD 17 6th grades
12
204
408
20
Denmark Elementary (5th)
1
17
34
20
42
718
8,207
702
Living Connections Program, 6th
grade
Total School-based Education in MSAD 61
Other Programs
Discovery Kids, 3rd through 6th grade
Stevens Brook Elementary
at Bridgton Community Center
Living Connections Program, 6th
grade
Hey You! Cruise
Total School-based Education in LEA Service Area
*The number of students is an estimate based on an average class size of 17 students.
**Student hours based on number of hours of instruction per student per lesson.
***Educator hours calculated for the number of instruction hours plus prep time and does not include curriculum
development.
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Kindergarten to Third Grade
Program Description
Lakes Environmental Association’s place-based approach to education provides a
perfect fit for many of the SAD 61 content standards in Kindergarten through 3rd
grades. Through guided investigations of the natural world, students in these
grades will develop skills and traits of scientific inquiry, understand biodiversity
and ecosystems, experience elements of consistency and change, and explore the
history and science of nature as appropriate for each grade level.
Example Units and Associated Content Standards:
Although LEA does not have any current programs in grades K-3 , LEA will work
with teachers to develop a lesson or a series of lessons that meet local and state
standards. The following example provides an illustration of how LEA creates
programs tailored to meet applicable standards and classroom needs.
The Trees in Our Woods
Students will explore the woods behind the school to learn about the trees that
grow there. They will collect and press leaves to create a leaf-identification booklet. They will learn how to use a simple key to identify common trees.
Content Standards and Descriptors
Kindergarten: A1 (b); B1 (a, b, c, e); E1 (a-c)
First grade: B1 (a-e); C1 (a-b); E1 (a-c)
Second grade: A3 (a); E1 (b-c)
Third grade: B1 (a, b, d, e); C1 (a-b); C4
Possible Program Topics
Amazing amphibians
The Wonders of Water
Birds in Our Backyard
Animal Tracks and Sign
Exploring Nature at Pondicherry Park
These examples serve to illustrate some of the possibilities for environmental programming in Kindergarten through 3rd grades. By working directly with the
teacher or group of teachers, LEA will help develop curriculum based on the standards and tailored to fit within an interdisciplinary framework. These programs
may be single or multiple class periods, with possible field trip extensions. All
programs are free and based on staff availability.
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Fourth Grade: Place Program
Program Description
The Place Program in 4th grade is a year-long series of lessons designed to introduce students to the natural world through quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. Each month, students explore the woods behind the school to
collect weather data and to nature journal. Through these two data collection
techniques, students learn about their local environment and cycles of change on
monthly and seasonal time scales.
In addition to the school-based explorations, this
program also includes a pond unit. Students visit the
Holt Pond Nature Preserve in the fall or spring to explore the wetland and pond ecosystems. LEA educators are also available to conduct introductory and
follow up activities in the classroom, including
aquatic insect explorations and pond ecology studies.
4th Grade Curriculum
The Place Program meets all of the following content standards for the MSAD 61 science curriculum.
The specific performance indicators are shown in parenthetical notation.
A1 Systems: Students explain interactions between parts that make up whole and
man-made and natural products (a-b).
A3 Constancy and Change: Students identify and represent basic patterns of
change in the physical setting, the living environment, and the technological
world (a).
B1 Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry: Students plan, conduct, analyze data
from and communicate results of investigations, including fair tests (a).
C1 Understanding of Inquiry: Students describe how scientific investigations result in explanations that are communicated to other scientists. (a-b).
C4 History and Nature of Science: No performance standard but students are expected to have instructional experiences that describe how science helps people
understand the natural world.
E1 Biodiversity: Students compare living things based on external features and
environmental needs (a-b)
E2 Ecosystems: Students describe the ways in which organisms depend upon, interact within, and change the living and non-living environment as well as ways
the environment affects organisms (a-e)
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Fifth grade: Soil Science
Program Description
The Soil Science program in 5th grade at Stevens
Brook and Crooked River Elementary schools is a
three or four day intensive unit on soil ecology. This
program is inquiry-based, as students generate independent research questions that help guide their explorations of soils. In the introductory lesson, students collect and analyze a soil sample from behind
the school. In the second lesson, they extend their
learning about soil to examine soil samples from different ecosystems. They also use hands-on demonstrations to explore soil formation processes. The culminating activity is a field
trip to Bald Pate Mountain where students follow an interpretive trail focused on
soil ecology and formation. A final jeopardy-style game is provided to prepare
students for assessment.
5th Grade Curriculum
The Soil Science Program meets all of the following content standards for the
MSAD 61 science curriculum. The specific performance indicators are shown in
parenthetical notation.
B1 Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry: Students
plan, conduct, analyze data from and communicate
results of investigations, including fair tests (a-e).
C1 Understanding of Inquiry: Students describe
how scientific investigations result in explanations
that are communicated to other scientists. (a-b).
C3 Science, Technology and Society: Students
identify and describe the influences of science and
technology on people and the environment (b).
C4 History and Nature of Science: No performance standard but students are expected to have
instructional experiences that describe how science
helps people understand the natural world.
D2 Earth: Students describe the processes of
Earth’s surface materials, the processes that
change them, and cycles that affect the Earth (c).
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Sixth Grade:
Living Connections Program
Program Description
The Living Connections Program is a year-long
watershed education program in sixth grade.
LEA’s Watershed Educator visits classrooms
twice per month to teach students about Earth
systems, focusing on the hydrosphere. Students begin the year with an exploration of water properties. Lessons on watersheds, the water cycle, groundwater, aquatic insects, trout
ecology, and wetlands create a foundation for
understanding interactions between the hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.
The second part of the year focuses on threats to water quality, including invasive
species and erosion. This portion of the curriculum introduces the concept that
human actions can affect the quality of Earth’s systems. The culmination of this
program is the Hey You! Cruise, a trip on the Songo River Queen in Naples during which students put their year-long learning into action through water testing
and other lake related activities. The Adopt-a-Trout program is an additional
component of the Living Connections Program, as students raise brook trout from
eggs to fry and release them into local rivers.
6th Grade Curriculum
The Living Connections Program meets the following content standards for the
MSAD 61 science curriculum. The specific performance indicators are described
in full to demonstrate the depth of material required by these standards.
D2 Earth: Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and
processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect short-term and long-term changes to the Earth.
b. Describe Earth Systems—biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere
and cycles and interactions within them (including water moving among and between them, rock forming and transforming, and weather formation.)
f. Give examples of abrupt and slow changes in Earth Systems
E. The Living Environment: Students understand the similarities and differences
between humans and other organisms and the interconnections of these interdependent webs.
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Seventh Grade:
Field Studies for Middle School Students
Program Description
The Field Studies for Middle School Students Program is
currently offered to seventh grade classes at Lake Region
Middle School. This program is designed to: 1) Enhance
student understanding of their local environment through
field-based explorations; 2) Encourage the development of
field science skills, such as map and compass use, environmental monitoring techniques, and observational abilities and 3) Encourage students to engage in self-generated
learning and develop scientific communication skills.
Every month, students visit a forested area behind the school to explore the ecosystem. In the first lesson, students use observation skills to collect qualitative
data about the field studies site. In the second lesson, students establish fixedradius research plots in which they will collect qualitative and quantitative data.
In this lesson, students develop self-generated research questions that guide their
explorations of the ecosystem. At the end of the year, students visit the Holt Pond
Preserve to extend their learning by comparing forested and wetland ecosystems.
As a culminating synthesis, students create a slide show to demonstrate ecosystem
functions, with a focus on connections between abiotic and biotic factors.
7th Grade Curriculum
The Field Studies Program meets the following content standards for the MSAD
61 science curriculum. The specific performance indicators are shown in parenthetical notation.
D2 Earth: Students describe the various cycles, physical and biological forces and
processes, position in space, energy transformations, and human actions that affect the short-term and long-term changes to the Earth (c).
E1 Biodiversity: Students differentiate among organisms based on biological
characteristics and identify patterns of similarity (a-d).
E2 Ecosystems: Students examine how the characteristics of the physical, nonliving (abiotic) environment, the types of behaviors of living (biotic) organisms,
and the flow of matter and energy affect organisms and the ecosystems of which
they are a part (a-c).
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Lake Region High School:
Environmental Studies
Program Description
Lakes Environmental Association’s Conservation and Education Director works
with the Environmental Studies teacher at Lake Region High School to help students conduct field-based scientific explorations. The goal of LEA’s involvement
with the Environmental Studies class is to engage students in environmental field
science and introduce them to career opportunities in this field. Students conduct
water quality monitoring on Long Lake and interpret 25 years of actual water
quality data. They collect aquatic insect samples and analyze the samples to assess pollution levels. They visit an acid rain monitoring site and examine air quality data from across the country. Through these and other experiences, students
gain valuable skills in environmental science that they will bring to future studies
and possible careers.
9th-12th Grade Curriculum
LEA’s Environmental Studies Program for High School Students meets the following content standards for the MSAD 61 science curriculum. The specific performance indicators are shown in parenthetical notation. This program also aligns
with the national AP Environmental Science Curriculum.
Life Science
A1 Systems: Students will apply an understanding of systems to explain and analyze human-made and natural phenomena (b).
B1 Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry: Students
methodologically plan, conduct, and analyze data from
and communicate results of in-depth scientific investigations, including experiments guided by testable hypothesis (g-l).
E2 Ecosystems: Students analyze the interactions, cycles, and factors that affect short and long-term ecosystem stabilities and change (a-d).
Physical Science
B1 Skills and Traits of Scientific Inquiry: Students
methodologically plan, conduct, and analyze data from
and communicate results of in-depth scientific investigations, including experiments guided by testable hypothesis (m-p).
D2 Earth: Students analyze the biological, physical energy, and human interaction that shape and alter the Earth Systems (c).
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Lakes Environmental Association
230 Main St.
Bridgton, Maine 04009
207-647-8580
bridie@leamaine.org
www.mainelakes.org
Lakes Environmental Association (LEA) is a non-profit organization located
in Bridgton, Maine. Lakes Environmental Association’s mission is to protect
and restore the high quality of the Lake Region’s waters and watersheds. To
accomplish this mission, LEA conducts water quality monitoring on 37 lakes
and ponds, prevents invasive plant infestations, assists towns with municipal
and comprehensive planning, and offers school and community-based education programs.