“Salmon Parents are Amazing!” Video
Runtime 4:50 Kid-friendly video about salmon life cycle; best for younger students.
Age: Early Elementary
“Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon” Video
Runtime 5:37 Short animated overview of salmon life cycle.
“Salmon’s Lifecycle and Incredible Impact on Our Ecosystem” Video
Runtime: 3:47 Quick general video. Good graphics about percentage of salmon that survive and explanation of nutrient cycling.
“Pacific Salmon and Their Circle of Life” Video
Runtime: 13:17 Documentary-style info about Chum; male vs female, general lifecycle, great footage of spawning behaviors. Good explanation and footage of how ocean derived nutrients work.
“I Am Salmon” Video
Runtime: 9:05 Engaging, kid-friendly lifecycle from the POV of a coho salmon.
Wetland Metaphors Activity
In this activity, students make comparisons between unrelated objects through metaphors to learn the functions of a wetland.
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 […]
BRIDGE Ocean Education
The Bridge Ocean Science Education Resource Center is an ever-growing collection of the best marine education materials available online. The Bridge provides educators with a convenient source of accurate and useful information on global, national, and regional marine science topics, and gives research scientists a contact point for broader impacts […]
Dungeness Crab Case Study
Dungeness crab is a valuable species throughout the national marine sanctuaries of the West Coast from Washington state to throughout California. This communication toolkit is designed for educators and communicators to use to teach others about the impact of ocean acidification on Dungeness crab. The toolkit includes: fact sheet; infographic; […]
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.
PEI’s Sit Spot Activity
This activity, especially when repeated many times over the course of a month or year, helps students connect with the ecosystem around them and observe changes to the natural world. Many different versions of this activity exist, but we love this one from Pacific Education Institute! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Tc8KSJR-jmdfZFVaG_A06YXiqSI21Eoo2rqK4dKSRXo/edit?usp=sharing
One With the Watershed Curriculum
This curriculum, created by The Tribal Communities of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, and the Seattle Aquarium, helps students learn about salmon through story, experience and information. https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/indianed/curriculum/onewiththewatershed.pdf
Nisqually StoryMap
Made by the Washington Stormwater Center, this is a great introduction to the watershed and water quality issues in Nisqually.
NREP Water Quality Sites
Check out all of our participating schools (yellow) and the water quality sites they monitor (blue) here! Click on the water quality site to see up to 25 years worth of historical data. Here’s a User’s Guide with a lot of neat tips on how to make the most of the map!
Project Wet Home Lesson Plans
Project WET has provided four different lessons related to water than can be done at home. Seeing Watersheds A Drop in the Bucket H2Olympics A Plume Problem
Cedar Box Teaching Toolkit
“This Toolkit is an educational resource featuring important native foods in Salish Country and the rich cultural traditions that surround them. The foods were selected because of their high nutritional value, cultural significance, and reasonable availability. The toolkit includes: • A cedar bentwood box, cooking tongs, cooking rocks, display containers, […]
“You Talk to the Plant” Video
Watch Dr.Virginia Beavert (Yakama) talk about the importance of thanking and talking to plants and medicines. Virginia Beavert: You Talk to the Plant, You Thank It
“Teaching of the Tree People” Video
Teachings of the Tree People is a tribute to the life and work of Skokomish elder Gerald Bruce Miller (subiyay), a nationally prominent cultural leader and teacher who brought his talents home to lead a cultural renaissance in the Pacific Northwest. His story offers a powerful model of cultural and […]
Water on Earth Graphic
From the USGS, this graphic details the proportions of water on Earth. “This image shows blue spheres representing relative amounts of Earth’s water in comparison to the size of the Earth. Are you surprised that these water spheres look so small? They are only small in relation to the size […]
Watersheds of America Map
Every inch of the United States is part of a watershed! Each color represents a different watershed in our country. A watershed is all of the land area, including the living and non-living things, that drains to one stream, river or lake. View a larger version and learn more about […]
“Puget Sound Starts Here” Videos
If you are interested in how to help keep your watershed clean, here are some action videos made by Pierce County Conservation District and Transect Films: Puget Sound Starts Here Video Pick Up After Your Pets Fix Car Leaks Go To A Car Wash
Hyporheic Zone Video and Article
This new 3D animation from USFWS is about the ecology of stream beds! These “hyporheic zones” are where steam water percolates down into the stream bed, mixes with groundwater, and reemerges to join the surface water. The hyporheic zone is so important to watershed health because it helps to cool, filter, and […]
“Driveway & Street Runoff” Video
This short animation from NOAA shows how driveway and lawn runoff contributes to water pollution and health of aquatic life.
“Littering” Video
This short animation from NOAA illustrates how a single piece of litter can multiply and make its way back to you.
“Welcome to the Riparian Zone” Video
This video from Northwest Treaty Tribes explains the importance of trees to salmon!
Salmon “Habitat” Video
Check out this awesome animation from the NOAA Salmon Project that explains why armored shorelines are so detrimental to juvenile salmon populations. NOAA Salmon Project "Habitat" from Beryl Allee on Vimeo.
Starflower Habitat Activities and Resources
Washington Native Plant Society’s Starflower Habitat Education Activities and Resources is amazing! “…includes hands-on activities for teachers and students, native plant identification cards useful for all, weed identification cards especially handy for individuals engaged in restoring habitat, and informational posters to alert others to the joys of native plants, as well as […]
Project Learning Tree Curriculum
For the active teacher who is looking for help in lesson planning a new unit, or a teacher who is starting a new curriculum, Project Learning Tree is a fantastic place to go. The hands-on approach and critical thinking requirements of each lesson fulfill the expectations of today’s classroom.
Trees to Seas Salmon Board Game
Salmon Board Game Parts -Print off these beautiful board pages with art from Nikki McClure! Salmon Board Game Instructions – loaded with excellent background information! Trees to Seas Follow-up Activity – thoughtful, engaging questions to wrap it all together
Salmon Activity Book
This Salmon Activity Book from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission has word searches, mazes, pictures to color, info about the native tribes that depend on salmon, and a whole lot more.
137 Species Poster
This printable poster from Salmon Nation nicely illustrates the concept of salmon as a keystone species.
“sčədadxʷ (salmon)” Video
“sčədadxʷ (salmon)” is an animated short featuring Billy Frank Jr. that takes the viewer up the river through the eyes of the salmon showing its pristine environment; its connection to the Pacific Northwest People; the arrival of the settlers; habitat degradation; the unification of people throughout the world working together […]
“Salmon Life Cycle” Song
Use this fun parody of “I Will Survive” to learn more about the life cycle of the salmon!
Refuge Bird List
Billy Frank Jr Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge has a checklist for all the birds we might see at the Refuge, as well as times of the year we’re most likely to see them. A great tool before a field trip and for students to use when they visit again!
Waste Free Lunch Activities
The EPA has several worksheets about waste-free lunches. Did you know that every school lunch creates an average of 67 pounds of trash per school year? That means just one average-size middle school creates over 40,000 pounds of lunch waste a year! By reducing the number of items in your lunch […]
Since Time Immemorial Curriculum
This site houses the Since Time Immemorial Curriculum: resources, materials, lessons, and entire units that support the teaching of tribal sovereignty, tribal history, and current tribal issues within the context of OSPI-recommended units for Washington and US history in the elementary and middle school levels and US history and Contemporary […]
Where the River Meets the Sound Curriculum
Where the River Meets the Sound, an educator’s guide to Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, offers complete information about field trip planning, preparation and pre- and post-field trip activities. It has background information about the indoor and trail activities offered at the Refuge. All activities are matched with Washington State Essential Academic […]
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Guide
This site has videos, links, and sounds, for all of the bird species in North America! Click below for direct links to some of the most common bird species found at the Refuge. Common Yellow Throat Red Winged Blackbird American Robin Swainson’s Thrush Canada Goose American Crow Bald Eagle Wood […]