Photo of Arctic willow (Salix arctica) courtesy Dennis Ronsse.

Lesson Ideas for Alaska Native Plant Month ... and beyond!

Do you have more time to dedicate? Explore these resources.

The Alaska Wildlife Curriculum is a set of ecology curricula designed for teachers of K-12 students who want to use the natural world in their classroom. Many activities in the books use the Alaska Ecology Cards, a set of ID cards for Alaska’s plants and animals. These are awesome resources, and if you are interested in a deep dive, ADF&G offers free teacher training to explore them thoroughly. To save time, we’ve curated a few of our favorite plant-related lessons and resources from each of the books.

Alaska’s Ecology introduces the basics of Alaskan ecosystems

1. Plants background reading (Gr. 4-12) Brief reading on ecological role of plants

2. Investigating Plants (Gr.4-12) Students create a transect to ID plants in their local ecosystem. (Need help ID-ing plants? We can help! See above for plant ID email!)

Remember to download the Alaska Ecology Cards!

Alaska’s Forests and Wildlife curriculum explores the coastal and boreal forest ecosystems. 

Two of our favorite activities:

1. ID Alaska’s Trees (Gr. 3-12) Fun activities for identifying the most common Alaska tree species or trees in your area

2. Champion Tree (Gr. 5-12) Students use math to find the size of trees.

Alaska’s Tundra and Wildlife curriculum explores the tundra ecosystem.

1. Tundra Plants (Gr.4-12) Brief reading for background on tundra plants 

2. Tundra Adaptations (Gr.4-12) Readings on adaptive strategies for all tundra life

3.  Plan Your Tundra Plant (Gr. 3-12) Students design and draw a plant that could live on the tundra.

4. Flower Flip Book (Gr.1-12) Students make a flip book to demonstrate heliotropism, a tundra plant adaptation

Alaska’s Wetlands and Wildlife explores the state’s wetland environments.

1. Wetland Plants (Gr. 4-12) Brief background reading on wetland plants

2. Waterlogged Worlds (Gr.3-12) Students explore the different types of wetlands in Alaska.

3. Insectivorous Plants Ecology Puzzler (Gr. 4-12) Students use the facts provided to figure out the puzzle.

4. Green Gobblers (Gr. 2-12) Students build a model of an insectivorous plant.

5. Meet a Plant (Gr. K-12) Students explore a plant while blindfolded.

6. Wetland Plants and Sphagnum Moss (Gr. 3-12) Students observe wetland plants.

7. Traditional Wetland Plant Use (Gr. 3-12) Intro to ethnobotany for wetland plants

8. Expanding Forests Puzzler (Gr.4-12) Why are wetlands on the Kenai disappearing?

Unit plan “The Earth, Forests and Trees”. From Chugach Regional Resources Commission Iqsak project, this unit plan has tons of ideas for teaching about plant communities and other ecological concepts through Alaska Native culture. Includes audio of Karen and Herman Moonin talking about plants and Skunk Cabbage and Water Lily story.

The following units come from the Sealaska Heritage Haida Language Curriculum, and the lessons can be adapted for culturally integrated science lessons. They are marked K-2 but can be widely adapted for a variety of grades by creative teachers. They were written for Southeast communities but many lessons are general enough for any region.

1. The Plant unit integrates Alaska Native culture into a variety of science lessons. 

2. Spruce includes fantastic lessons for getting to know this Alaskan tree. 

3. Cedar focuses on red and yellow cedar but could be adapted for other trees.

4. Similarly, Hemlock is written about that tree, but could be adapted. It includes recipes for tree cookies, an interactive story, and a rotting log exploration.

5. The Berries unit would be a great resource in the fall.