Implementing the Curriculum

Photo by Suzanne DeJohn


The Nature's Partners curriculum
is designed to be flexible.
Although it is presented as
a sequence of activities, there
is no need to do them all or to
do them in order.



Photo by Suzanne DeJohn


The program will be most effective
when the young people are involved
in contributing to the community
through a service learning project.

Overview

Nature's Partners is an inquiry learning-based curriculum for young people in the 4th through the 6th grade. It is comprised of seven modules. Each module offers three or four activities designed to engage young people in active, investigative science following a learning cycle of

• exploration,
• concept introduction/development, and
• concept application.

The activities are appropriate for the formal classroom or for a nonformal education setting and can easily be adapted to fit the needs of the students and the teaching situation.

Service Learning

The context of community is an important aspect of this program. The program will be most effective when the young people are involved in contributing to the community through a service learning project.

Adapt the Curriculum

The Nature's Partners curriculum is designed to be a highly adaptive and flexible resource for teachers and youth leaders. Although the curriculum is presented as a sequence of activities, there is no need to do them all or to do them in order.

Begin by reading the detailed curriculum outline to identify those modules and learning activities that fit your specific goals, situation, and needs. Each module offers a variety of activities, suggestions for further exploration, and ideas for applying the concepts developed in the activities. Activities can easily be modified for your situation.

The materials for each module are organized as follows:

Purpose: States the goals for the module.

Background: Provides information on the module topic for the benefit of the leaders. This is not intended to be read to participants.

Activities: Each activity provides an easy-to-follow plan for implementation and is divided into sections:

• Participants will: Statement of what the participants will do and learn.
• Materials needed: Lists materials you will need for the activity.
• Getting Ready: Reminders of things that need to be done before the activity.
• Action: Provides guidelines for the three stages of the activity: Exploration, Concept Introduction/Development, and Concept Application.
• Going Further: Additional ways participants can apply or share the concepts they have learned during a module. Not all Modules have this section.

Optional/Alternate Activities: Other ways to accomplish the goals and objectives of the module are sometimes suggested.

Supplementary Resources: Materials that provide information helpful in carrying out the activities included in that module.

Activity Sheets: Printed materials for the participants to use in the activities.

Engage the Community

Community members and organizations that are knowledgeable and interested in such topics as ecology, plants and/or animals native to the region, beekeeping, gardening, and environmental conservation can be great resources for your program. You will probably find such people or organizations very willing to help by sharing their expertise with the children. See Resources/Links for suggestions on how to locate such individuals or groups.

Available from the
Gardening with Kids Store.

It is also worthwhile to give some thought to possible service projects and community awareness projects that the group may wish to undertake. Your community may have some unique needs and opportunities for service.

Participant Supplies

If possible, each participant should have a copy of the Pollinator Field Journal. If it is not possible to order one journal per student, at least have a few copies on hand to use as references. It would also be helpful if each participant had a folder with pockets for organizing the work sheets that accompany many of the activities and for storing their field journal.

Module 1