Wetland Metaphors Activity
In this activity, students make comparisons between unrelated objects through metaphors to learn the functions of a wetland.
Activity Type: Activity
Wetland Safari – Benthic Macroinvertebrates
In this activity, students will learn and/or practice microscopy technique, while sorting freshwater macroinvertebrates by order, ultimately using the invertebrates to make a claim about the health of a wetland.
Fecal Coliform Lab
This lab walks you through fecal coliform testing, an important part of water quality monitoring!
Seeing Watersheds
In this activity, students use maps to characterize what a watershed is; to identify the key parts and functions of watersheds; to determine watershed boundaries; to discover how watersheds are named; and to describe how water flows in a watershed based on elevation.
Beat the Uncertainty: Planning Climate-Resilient Cities
In this activity, you and your fellow players are the leaders—citizens, policymakers, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, and researchers—of a coastal city. Your job is to make smart decisions that will increase the city’s resilience to climate change.
Engineering a Solution to Watershed Pollution
In this two part activity, students will first be introduced to the water cycle and discover how water moves through a system. In the second part, students will engineer a solution to the problem of pollution entering our water bodies.
Thermal Expansion and Sea Level Rise
This activity provides an opportunity for students to investigate how thermal expansion of water affects sea level rise. The suggested lab activity allows students to observe and describe the change in water level in a container when the water is exposed to heat.
Nisqually Delta Restoration Puzzle
The Nisqually River Delta in Washington State provides a model of river estuary restoration and a hopeful message about our environment. This puzzle provides a hands-on learning activity for adults and children to visualize the impact of removing 100-year-old agricultural dikes at the Nisqually Delta on salmon and the thousands […]
The Power of pH: Changing Ocean Chemistry
What is pH and how does carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels increase the acidity of the ocean? Students explore the answers to these questions in this two-part lab investigation.
Habitat Posters
Use these six colorful natural history posters of different animal habitats for many fun activities at home or in the classroom!
Benthic Macroinvertebrate Pollution Tolerance Index
After collecting a sample of benthic macroinvertebrates, use this pollution tolerance index (or Benthic Index of Biological Integrity) to determine the health of the water! Comes in a printable or virtual Google Slides format.
Benthic Macroinvertebrate Key
This printable key helps you identify common benthic macroinvertebrates in stream/river ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest. It also comes in an interactive virtual version!
PLT’s Sound Map
Nature provides us with many unforgettable sounds. Breezes whistling through the leaves, birds singing early in the morning, and streams gurgling over rocks are just some of the sounds children recognize. In this activity, students use their sense of sound to created a sound map.
BirdSleuth Explorer’s Guidebook
Become an expert explorer! Follow this step-by-step BirdSleuth Explorer’s Guidebook and use your senses to discover the birds in this park.
Algae Boom and Bust Experiment
Climate change and increasing water temperatures, along with added nutrients from human activities, impact both aquatic ecosystems and the people who depend on them. In this experiment-based lesson, students examine one outcome — algae blooms.
Virtual Benthic Macroinvertebrate Lesson
Check out our materials for a virtual benthic macroinvertebrate lesson! Students identified bugs from this folder using this interactive key (printable version here) and recorded their findings with this interactive worksheet. The lesson included a pollution tolerance index that could be printed or used virtually with Google Slides.
Ecosystem Biodiversity Study
This activity allows students to compare the biodiversity of two separate areas: natural vs cultivated, burned vs unburned, the possibilities are endless!