Ways to Use the Curriculum and Resources

• Summer Camp!

This is what I did. I did four days of camp one for each topic. I supplemented the activities with games, snacks and playtime. We did the whole summer camp in our local park with teenage and adult volunteers for help and supervision.

• After-school Program or Club

This curriculum would work great if broken up to work as part of an after school program or club. It could be broken up in many ways. For example over 4 weeks, three times a week or over twelve weeks, once a week. This could be run by a teacher, after-school helper, or volunteer from the community.

• During school

Teachers could use one or all of these activities to teach environmental science to their classes. Getting students doing hands-on science outdoors is so important and it has proved to be way more effective in changing ecological behavior than indoor environmental science. Many of these activities would make excellent supplements to environmental science lessons.

• For fun!

Many of these activities are fairly cheap and easy to do at home with kids. They are a great way to engage kids in science in a fun way at home or with friends.

• In Girl Scouts

As a Girl Scout myself, I think it is so important for troop leaders to engage girls in fun science as well as engage them in community issues like protecting the environment. Many of these activities would be easy to do during a meeting. They are fun and provide girls with scientific knowledge they can use to advocate for the environment.

If you are local (Santa Cruz County) I have many of the supplies for these activities available to borrow. Please email jrearthkeepers@gmail.com to access these supplies.

In a camp or after-school program, supplemental games or activities may be needed. Here are just a few ideas I used during my summer camp.

• Sidewalk chalk

During summer camp we put sidewalk chalk with environmental messages all along the walkway to our local beach. The kids loved drawing with chalk and felt great about the idea of every person walking to the beach seeing and reading their messages.

• Talk about food while eating snacks

Food has a large environmental impact. Take the opportunity to discuss food waste, the impact of food production, and the types of foods that are more and less environmentally friendly (vegetarian vs meat eaters, land use, etc.).

• Play games!

During camp we played lots of camp games including many versions of tag, zoo, and categories ("this is a game of concentration, no mistakes or hesitations..."). A couple other fun camp games/ ice breakers that were new to the kids were:

1. Going on a Picnic: Tell kids to imagine we are going on a picnic, but certain people can only bring certain foods. Only you know the rule. Then have kids go around in a circle and state their name and the food they want to bring. The rule is that kids must bring a food that begins with the same letter their name begins with. When each kid says what they want to bring tell them whether they can bring the food or not. (it helps to repeat what they said, for example: "no Sarah you cannot bring apples" or "yes Sarah, you can bring soup"). You can keep going in circles until someone or everyone guesses the rule.
2. Name Tag: Everyone stands in a circle with their palms facing up in the center. One person is "it" and stands in the middle. Some on the outside starts by saying "(their name) to (another persons name)". The person in the middle tries to slap the hands of the person whose turn it is before they pass it on to someone else. If you get tagged before saying "(your name) to (someone else's name)" or if you pull your hands back, you are it and the person in the middle takes our place in the circle.

• Read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

This book is a fun read that's all about protecting the environment. Kids are interested in the story and learn the important message Dr. Seuss has to share.

• Go for a hike or walk in nature

During camp we walked down to the beach so the kids could collect their own shells for the ocean acidification activity, but any hiking or walking in nature is fun and reminds kids what we have to be grateful for and protect.

• Have discussions and debates on how to protect the environment

During camp, we did a student lead discussion on ways to protect the environment at the end of each day.

I created two surveys to measure the impact of this curriculum (you can print out or do online):

1. A measurement of kids' knowledge of environmental science before and after the curriculum

Link to Survey: https://forms.gle/iwtMpisLoyrusjHj6

I had students complete this on the first day of camp and at the end of the last day of camp to measure how much they learned.

2. A measurement of the curriculum's effect on ecological behavior

Link to Survey: https://forms.gle/dwPw8XDW1wLcRXxG8

I based these questions off of the discussions we had during camp and used it as a follow-up survey about a month after the camp was over. It asks for responses from both the students and the parents of kids and measures the broader impact of the curriculum.