Wild Treasures in Your Classroom!
Antioch University New England’s Wild Treasures: Sustainability, Naturally program has benefitted science teachers and their students throughout the region for over fifteen years, and could potentially serve you and your students!
Students are thoroughly engaged as they are transformed into active scientists, problem-solvers, investigators and effective communicators. Based on the innovative challenges presented within the three distinct phases of the curriculum - research, proposal, and action - with principles of sustainability including entropy, feedback loops, and exponential growth, students self-initiate and self-direct research and investigations into their own school’s sustainability.
Wild Treasures: Sustainability, Naturally, embedded within the Environmental Studies Department of Antioch University New England, has been recognized by Audubon and Toyota, and has been offered an award with the TogetherGreen initiative to expand our reach. Because Wild Treasures is embedded in the Science Teacher Certification program at AUNE, it allows pre-service science teachers to gain real-world experience in inquiry-based, student-driven education, in providing hands-on curriculum assistance in local schools.
Wild Treasures offers a unique and integrated perspective of civics, science, and sustainability education for middle- and high-school classrooms that would prove to be incredibly valuable for educators of the 21st century.
Students are thoroughly engaged as they are transformed into active scientists, problem-solvers, investigators and effective communicators. Based on the innovative challenges presented within the three distinct phases of the curriculum - research, proposal, and action - with principles of sustainability including entropy, feedback loops, and exponential growth, students self-initiate and self-direct research and investigations into their own school’s sustainability.
Wild Treasures: Sustainability, Naturally, embedded within the Environmental Studies Department of Antioch University New England, has been recognized by Audubon and Toyota, and has been offered an award with the TogetherGreen initiative to expand our reach. Because Wild Treasures is embedded in the Science Teacher Certification program at AUNE, it allows pre-service science teachers to gain real-world experience in inquiry-based, student-driven education, in providing hands-on curriculum assistance in local schools.
Wild Treasures offers a unique and integrated perspective of civics, science, and sustainability education for middle- and high-school classrooms that would prove to be incredibly valuable for educators of the 21st century.
There are two basic options for integrating Wild Treasures into your classroom,
both FREE of charge!
1. Use all of the Wild Treasures curriculum and resources, which are available on this site. Move at your own pace. Feel free to check in or share how things are going.
2. If your school is within 50 miles of Keene, you can apply for Wild Treasures Teaching Assistants to help implement the Challenge, Research, Proposal and/or Action phases of the curriculum.
In every phase of Wild Treasures (Research, Proposal and Action) your students will return repeatedly to these main ideas: waste, exponential growth, cycling, feedback loops, and entropy. They will research these ideas relative to your school’s operation. They will use these ideas to propose to your school board a plan to improve the sustainability profile of your school. And they will turn their proposal into action by actually improving your school’s sustainability profile. Little do they know that they are about to embark on a deep inquiry into some big ideas that will change the way they think about themselves, their culture, and future generations. What follows is a brief summary of each phase of the 4 primary parts of the program:
1. Challenges (6-8 classes, depending on the size and length of your class periods.)
The Challenge consists of 6 problems that require you to work in small groups to solve a variety of surprising problems designed to introduce you to 5 big ideas about sustainability: waste, exponential growth, cycling, feedback loops and entropy. These 5 ideas are the foundation on which all the other phases of Wild Treasures rest.
Consider utilizing a WT Teaching Assistant to teach an experiential, problem-solving based lesson on any of the big ideas introduced along the Challenges and/or to help facilitate any part of the Research phase. Apply if you are within 50 miles from Keene, NH.
II. Research (1-2 months, focused)
During the Research phase you are expected to design and conduct original research about your school's sustainable practices. Along the way you are expected to submit a research proposal and your final research report to your WT Teaching Assistant.
To help imagine the research possibilities, check out the So What? cards. Each card revisits one of the problems along the Challenge Trail, restates the primary concept, and offers a variety of potential school-oriented sustainability research ideas.
III. Proposal (1-2 months, intermittent)
Your challenge is to transform your research report findings into a comprehensive proposal that you will submit in writing and via a live presentation to your school board, asking for the board's guidance, support, and if possible, contribution toward implementing a sustainability action plan based on your research findings. Successfully complete the Proposal phase and earn another round of FREE UNLIMITED SUPPORT from a WT Teaching Assistant who can help you turn that school-board approved proposal into reality!
IV. Action (1-2 months, intermittent)
Make it happen! From recycling systems to organic lunch items to tree-free paper, Wild Treasures participants are helping reduce their school's carbon footprint, toxic connections, and unsustainable practices. This is the phase in which you will put your plan into action and make the world a little bit more sustainable. Demonstrate that you have implemented your school board approved action plan, and your WT Teaching Assistant will nominate your class for a Governor's Sustainability Award, and submit articles to your area newspapers recognizing your hard work and accomplishments.
1. Challenges (6-8 classes, depending on the size and length of your class periods.)
The Challenge consists of 6 problems that require you to work in small groups to solve a variety of surprising problems designed to introduce you to 5 big ideas about sustainability: waste, exponential growth, cycling, feedback loops and entropy. These 5 ideas are the foundation on which all the other phases of Wild Treasures rest.
Consider utilizing a WT Teaching Assistant to teach an experiential, problem-solving based lesson on any of the big ideas introduced along the Challenges and/or to help facilitate any part of the Research phase. Apply if you are within 50 miles from Keene, NH.
II. Research (1-2 months, focused)
During the Research phase you are expected to design and conduct original research about your school's sustainable practices. Along the way you are expected to submit a research proposal and your final research report to your WT Teaching Assistant.
To help imagine the research possibilities, check out the So What? cards. Each card revisits one of the problems along the Challenge Trail, restates the primary concept, and offers a variety of potential school-oriented sustainability research ideas.
III. Proposal (1-2 months, intermittent)
Your challenge is to transform your research report findings into a comprehensive proposal that you will submit in writing and via a live presentation to your school board, asking for the board's guidance, support, and if possible, contribution toward implementing a sustainability action plan based on your research findings. Successfully complete the Proposal phase and earn another round of FREE UNLIMITED SUPPORT from a WT Teaching Assistant who can help you turn that school-board approved proposal into reality!
IV. Action (1-2 months, intermittent)
Make it happen! From recycling systems to organic lunch items to tree-free paper, Wild Treasures participants are helping reduce their school's carbon footprint, toxic connections, and unsustainable practices. This is the phase in which you will put your plan into action and make the world a little bit more sustainable. Demonstrate that you have implemented your school board approved action plan, and your WT Teaching Assistant will nominate your class for a Governor's Sustainability Award, and submit articles to your area newspapers recognizing your hard work and accomplishments.