| SD Project WET is pleased to
announce the correlation of the activities in the Project
WET Curriculum and Activity Guide to South Dakota social
studies, science and math content standards.
The correlation was done as
part of a grant from Environmental Education and Training
Partnership (EETAP), a cooperative organization of national
agencies and organizations involved in environmental
education, funded by the Environmental Project Agency.
In July 2007, a dozen K-16
educators assembled and reviewed the Project WET, WILD and
Learning Tree curricula,
correlating them to South Dakota content standards. For an activity to be
marked as correlated to a standard, the following criteria
were applied:
Only the main part of the
activity was evaluated. Extensions and follow up
activities were not considered.
Activities were only
evaluated for their indicated grade level. Thus, if an
activity said it was written for Grades 4 - 6, it was not
considered when correlating Grade 8 standards, even though
the activity might address that standard.
Activities were evaluated as
written. Modifications and adaptations to the activity
were not correlated to standards.
These criteria were
something of a challenge to experienced educators who knew
that with minimal adaptation, activities could address more
standards. However, since it was recognized that not
everyone using these activities would be an experienced
educator the activities were correlated only as written.What this means for the classroom teacher is
that there
are actually more activities that can be used in the
classroom than what is shown here. Activities are
easily adaptable up or down a grade level by simplifying
concepts or including more complicated questioning.
Furthermore, as the introductions to all the content
standards indicate, there are skills, knowledge and material
that can and should be covered in the classroom but are not
addressed specifically in the standards. As one
educator wrote: Developing critical thinking/problem
solving skills will provide background for students.
This background helps students master the content faster
and to a greater degree. Project WET
activities can help develop the thinking skills that are so
vital to content mastery even if they do not directly
address the standard.
In short, this document as well as the Project WILD and
Learning Tree correlation documents are meant to show the
baseline instructional value of environmental education. Any
competent teacher will be able to utilize these activities
in their classroom to address standards, stimulate inquiry
based investigation and develop higher level thinking in children. |
