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Lesson Plans & Resources
Lesson: River Runner, Follow Rain
Imagine a raindrop rolling off your slicker and falling to the ground. Can you picture what happens to it next? Now you can find out not only where a raindrop goes, but you can join it on its journey to the ocean (or other large water body) with a mesmerizing interactive map called River Runner. Created with watershed data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the map allows one to "drop" a raindrop anywhere in the contiguous U.S. and trace its path. And it's not just watching a blue line snake across the states. Thanks to animation created with the Mapbox map and 3D elevation data, you practically get the raindrop's view as it flows through mountains and fields on its adventures through the watersheds.
Lesson Plan: Migration
Mary’s River Watershed Council is similar to the Little Arkansas Watershed. Use this plan to explore migration through Wichita. Here students showed off some project materials for Classrooms Across Borders, a project that will share ecological and cultural lessons between students in Oregon and Mexico. At the STEAM night, the partners' interactive booths at the event including bird nests, study skins and mammal pelts and skulls to teach students about native animals.
Resource: Urban River Restoration Research
Excerpt from the summary - There are many advantages of helping the natural wildlife to be restored in the city. The strongest argument seems to be, that a human is a part of the nature and any spatially violent acts against the environment will have strong negative eects on inhabitants and their surroundings. The process of creating new public spaces should therefore keep the existing natural elements.
Lesson Plan: Protecting Cats and Wildlife
Planned for Zoom, and meets 6-8th Grade.
Explain to students they will be analyzing a global issue. What
types of effects do domestic, outdoor cats have on wildlife
populations? What role should individuals and communities
play when ensuring the safety of both cats and wildlife? How
might working together to solve this issue build stronger,
more resilient communities?
Have students read the two following articles. The articles and
their reading comprehension questions are part of this lesson
packet, but the articles can also be found at the following links:
Resource: Planning-Let's do this!
The National Wildlife Refuge System is the nation’s largest collection of public lands and waters conserved for fish and wildlife. Planning is essential to ensure that the Refuge System meets this conservation commitment.
Resource: Important Places
A work in progress. Please fill out the Contact form to volunteer for our response to Places or People. Join us as we create protections for the river. Join us as we develop buffer zones, and the greening of the river corridor, and call for a development moratorium. And the reinstatement or recreation of an updated Environmentally Sensitive Areas Map to prohibit Macro Industrial Towers within the river corridor.
Lesson: Monarch Butterfly Rest Stop
In this craft activity, students will create a butterfly feeder while learning about monarch butterflies and their long migratory journey. Students will learn not only of the monarch’s epic migration pattern, but also of the threats facing these butterflies, and how building a simple butterfly feeder can benefit these insects
Lesson Plan: Homes of the Little Arkansas
The purpose of this lesson is to show the connection between American Indians in Kansas and the environment. First grade students will learn about the traditional homes of the Wichita, Pawnee, Kansa, and Cheyenne. In reading the texts as a class, the student will practice choral reading. The material can be covered in six short sessions spread out over six days or can be combined and completed in fewer days. Select each image to see a PDF with the front and back of each card.
Lesson Plan: Pollinators
Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle and Conservation an overview of monarch butterfly biology and conservation. Provided by the US Wildlife Fish and Wildlife Service includes multiple links to lessons, and videos.
Resource: Planning-Let's do this!
The National Wildlife Refuge System is the nation’s largest collection of public lands and waters conserved for fish and wildlife. Planning is essential to ensure that the Refuge System meets this conservation commitment.
Lesson Plan: Teach Climate Science
Bringing the science of climate change to classrooms supports our goal to promote the greening of the river corridor. This link will take you a collection of lessons to help teachers be as effective as possible when teaching climate science. This series of web pages introduces climate science in a sequence that illustrates different aspects of the climate system.
Lesson: Youth Education Resources for Ages 14-18
Download our educational resources for students in high school. Lessons cover urban runoff, biomimicry, climate change, and more! Each lesson plan comes with a free teacher's guide and video.
Lesson: BIODIVERSITY TOOLKIT
From the World Wildlife Fund, Teaching Tools About Biodiversity also in Spanish. The activities within the biodiversity toolkit provide students with an understanding of the importance of nature and how all living things are connected.
Lessons: Climate Science Grades 6-12
Yale has developed materials for teachers who are interested in using their resources in their classrooms. They aim to immerse students in climate change issues in an accessible, digestible, and interactive way. While these NGSS and Common Core-aligned activities were designed for middle and high schoolers, you can easily convert them to Word documents using free platforms like https://simplypdf.com/ so that you can customize them for your students.
Lesson: Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide
A planning guide for creating schoolyard habitat and outdoor classroom projects. This is your guide book to transforming your school grounds into a place that engages the entire school community in habitat restoration. You are a part of a national movement dedicated to developing a citizenry that consciously values their environment. Once you move through this process, your school community will connect to the natural world, not by sitting inside and looking out, but instead by being outside and looking deeper. This is a how-to guide. It will take you and your students through each step of the process: planning, installing, and sustaining a project. This is not a book about why schoolyard projects are important; this is a guide about how to make the best one for your site.
Lesson Plan: Trader and Town Builder
James R. Mead (1836-1910) is best known for his role in founding the city of Wichita; however, he was also an early settler in the Kansas Territory. He established several important trading posts and actively traded with Native Americans as well as pioneers like William "Dutch Bill" Greiffenstein, Jesse Chisholm and William "Buffalo Bill" Mathewson during a period of roughly ten years (1859-1870). Among his business papers and correspondence with his parents are insights into life on the prairie.
Lesson Plan: You’re the scientist! Citizen Science, Frogs & Cicadas
The conservation community relies heavily on volunteers to not only restore natural areas, but to help gauge the success of restoration efforts. Volunteers team up with experienced stewards and scientists to monitor the recovery of native habitats, or to record data on rare species of wildflowers, butterflies and other wildlife. But can students get involved? In fact, they can! Learn all about citizen science!
Lesson: Buildings, Rivers, and Roads
Bird species, particularly those that seem to be more terrestrial can be affected by a changing landscape. Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) is one of these species in decline due to habitat fragmentation. Habitat fragmentation is defined as the alteration of the environment leading to isolated patches of habitat that were previously connected.