“Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon” Video
Runtime 5:37 Short animated overview of salmon life cycle.
Age: Middle School
“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.
“Oyster Farmers and Ocean Acidification” Video
This video features employees at Taylor Shellfish detailing how ocean acidification affects the oysters, and thus, their business and lives.
“What Is Ocean Acidification?” Video
This animated video shows students how ocean acidification affects shellfish (and humans!)
Wetland Metaphors Activity
In this activity, students make comparisons between unrelated objects through metaphors to learn the functions of a wetland.
Sea Level Change and Coastal Hazards in Washington
Many factors contribute to Sea Level Rise. Learn more here!
The Pacific Northwest Fish Wars: What Kinds of Actions Can Lead to Justice?
This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members and their supporters, images, news footage, an interactive timeline, and other sources about an important campaign to secure the treaty rights and sovereignty of Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest. Explore the many actions Native Nations took to address injustices.
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.
Game of Floods
The Game of Floods is a small group activity, with 4-6 participants tasked with developing a vision for ‘Marin Island 2050,’ a hypothetical landscape that highlights the conditions that will be experienced in Marin in coming years with sea level rise and increased storm impacts causing the loss or deterioration […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hypoxia
Low or depleted oxygen in a water body often leads to ‘dead zones ‘— regions where life cannot be sustained. Visit this webpage to learn more about hypoxia!
What is Eutrophication?
Harmful algal blooms, dead zones, and fish kills are the results of a process called eutrophication—which begins with the increased load of nutrients to estuaries and coastal waters. Learn more about eutrophication by visiting this webpage!
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!
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.
Salmon Guide
This colorful, 4 page Salmon Guide gives you information about the various species of salmon in the Nisqually, including life history and population trends.
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!
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
Nisqually Restoration Initiatives Map
This map shows the protected lands and habitat restoration initiatives throughout the Nisqually in more detail. There’s a lot going on here!
Restoring the Nisqually StoryMap
This Story Map highlights 3 of the major salmon habitat restoration efforts in the Nisqually – the Nisqually estuary, Ohop Creek (one of our field visit sites) and the Nisqually Community Forest.
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!
Mapping the Snout Activity
In this activity, students will map and graph the advance and retreat of the Nisqually Glacier and state the relationship between weather patterns and terminus movement, as well as the impacts of climate change on Mount Rainer’s glaciers.
Forward or Reverse? Activity
In this activity, students will graph and make correlations between snowfall and glacial advance and retreat of Mount Rainier’s Nisqually Glacier.
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 […]
Virtual Water Quality Monitoring Resources
Water Quality Monitoring is going virtual! Click here to access the new Water Quality Monitoring Portal! Want to learn more about the portal and how to get the most out of it? Watch our video here! Interactive Journals/Data Sheets To supplement the portal, you can add this Google Slide Interactive […]
Water Quality Demo Videos
What is it like to do Water Quality Monitoring? Check out these WQ Instructional Videos, one for each test! Thanks to our project partner, South Sound GREEN, for making them! Turbidity Dissolved Oxygen pH Nitrates
NREP/SSG Water Quality Curriculum
Here’s the first draft of our Water Quality Curriculum created in partnership with South Sound GREEN. Let us know if you use it and what you think!
Engineering Solutions Curriculum
The purpose of the Engineering Solutions stormwater curriculum is to develop a deeper understanding of the serious issues facing our community with stormwater runoff and specific actions we can take to improve the quality of our water. State and federal governments have established strict regulations regarding stormwater management, including funding […]
Water Quality Testing Introduction Activity
Use this worksheet to introduce the concepts of Water Quality Monitoring to students. Students will read this handout, then answer questions and complete a crossword.
How’s My Waterway? Site
How’s My Waterway was designed to provide the general public with information about the condition of their local waters based on data that states, federal, tribal, local agencies and others have provided to EPA. Water quality information is displayed on 3 scales in How’s My Waterway; community, state and national. More recent or more detailed water information may exist […]
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 […]
Discover Water Web Portal
Discover Water and The Role of Water in Our Lives on Project WET’s new web portal here.
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 […]
Nutrients in Puget Sound Article
How are nutrients affecting Puget Sound and where are they coming from? Read this article from the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound from University of Washington to learn all about it!
“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