Sustainable Schoolyards

For Teachers Grades K–12
June 16–20, 2008
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center

Turn a portion of your schoolyard into an outdoor classroom by engaging your students in the planning, development and management of a native plant habitat. This workshop is based on the Earth Partnership for Schools program developed at the University of Wisconsin—Madison Arboretum, where a number of teachers have successfully restored native plant habitats on their school grounds. The workshop is open to teams of at least two teachers from a school. Contact Eddie Jones at eddie@litzsinger.org for further information.

Registration is closed for Sustainable Schoolyards.

Introduction to St. Louis Ecology

For Teachers Grades K–12
July 21–25, 2008
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center

Learn more about the ecology of the St. Louis region by investigating the prairie, woodland and stream habitats at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, located right in the middle of St. Louis. Participants will increase their understanding of local ecosystems, relate them to basic ecological concepts and gain experience in outdoor environmental investigation. Contact Eddie Jones at eddie@litzsinger.org for further information.

Registration is closed for Introduction to St. Louis Ecology.

The following two courses, part of the Mapping the Environment series, involve geographic information systems software. In each workshop, significant time is dedicated to developing your own curriculum project to implement in your classroom.

Mapping Your Community

For Teachers Grades 4–12
June 23–27, 2008
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center

Meet your curriculum goals while engaging your students in studies of their local community. Participants will develop a curriculum module to take back to school that uses a place-based approach to education and integrates use of geographic information system (GIS) software and other resources to support student inquiry. A school site license for the GIS software is provided to all participants.

Mapping Environmental Issues

For Teachers Grades 4–12
June 30–July 2, 2008
9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Litzsinger Road Ecology Center

For teachers with some experience using a geographic information system (GIS), this advanced workshop covers how to identify local data sources and process the data for use in an environmental investigation. Participants will take home their data and an outline for a project. This workshop assumes comfort with basic computer skills, including navigating folders and downloading and unzipping files.

There is no registration fee for either mapping workshop. Participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging costs.

Mapping the Environment workshops are by application only.

Registration is now closed for these two workshops.

Optional graduate credit is available at an additional fee.

For more information about the content of the workshops, contact Bob Coulter at bob@litzsinger.org.