Resources
Curriculum
Welcome to the Teacher Curriculum Resources page. Here you’ll find a range of place-based materials — lesson plans, activities, and teaching guides — designed to help bring watershed education into the classroom. Rooted in the Lake Champlain Basin, these resources support learning across subjects through the lens of water, ecology, and community.
Watershed Education Literature
The Benefits of PBE: A report from the Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative
The Benefits of PBE | Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative
Place-based education immerses students in local heritage, culture, ecology, landscapes, opportunities, and experiences as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects.
The Benefits of Environmental Education for K-12 Students
Experts at Stanford University systematically searched the academic literature and analyzed 119 peer-reviewed studies published over a 20-year period that measured the impacts of environmental education for K-12 students. The review found clear evidence that environmental education programs provide a variety of benefits. Not surprisingly, the studies clearly showed that students taking part in environmental education programming gained knowledge about the environment. But learning about the environment is just the tip of the iceberg.
Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience
An Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE)
An Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) is designed for users with varying levels of familiarity as an easy to-use manual for constructing high-quality educational experiences for all students. In this guide you will find information about why the MWEE is a powerful educational framework, descriptions of the MWEE essential elements and supporting practices, and resources for planning a MWEE. The tools and information in this guide help ensure that MWEEs are done thoroughly and thoughtfully to increase student environmental literacy.
Watershed Education Curriculum
This Lake Alive! An Interdisciplinary Handbook for Teaching and Learning about the Lake Champlain Basin | Shelburne Farms
This publication is designed to help you create an interdisciplinary study of the Lake Champlain Basin. Its chapters on the Basin’s Geology, Geography, History, Nautical Archeology, Living Treasures, and Ecology contain activities and informational essays written for the teacher and student. This is an opportunity to create curriculum, not a curriculum itself. One reader likened This Lake Alive to a kitchen cupboard, not a recipe book. Activities are presented with the middle level learner in mind but can be adjusted to any age—including adults.
Learn more about This Lake Alive! →
Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Handbook | Lake Champlain Sea Grant
This handbook was designed to support Watershed Alliance’s Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Program. It provides background information on water quality monitoring in an educational context and directions on how to lead a stream monitoring program. The Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Program is divided into multiple experiences including classroom, field, and stewardship components.
Learn more about the Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Handbook →
Soaking Up Stormwater: Through Education and Stewardship in the Lake Champlain Basin and Beyond | Lake Champlain Sea Grant
This curriculum was designed for use by upper elementary, middle, and high school teachers with their students. This curriculum is designed to help students and teachers understand watersheds and the impact that stormwater can have within them; identify possible sources of stormwater in their communities; engage in a stewardship project that helps clean and minimize stormwater runoff to surface waters; and lead others to engage in stormwater stewardship.
Watershed for Every Classroom (WEC) Curriculum
Please check back soon for exemplar curriculum from the Watershed for Every Classroom program.