NEEF Greening STEM for Educators Grant

The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), with major funding support from the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas (MCFA), is offering a total of $7,000 in funding for teachers, after-school programs and nature organizations for projects that support Greening STEM. Grants will range from $500 to $1,000 each.

Through these grants, NEEF will support educators who are leading the way in Greening STEM education and provide support for continued development and innovation of school programs and projects connecting STEM with environmental education.

Developments in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are growing faster than ever and the need to find engaging ways to teach lessons in these subjects grounded in real-world experience is clear. NEEF believes that the natural world offers a compelling and universal context for investigations and applications of many STEM lessons. By learning about STEM concepts in reference to real-life environmental examples or issues, the subject matter is more tangible and extends beyond the textbook or classroom, influencing the way students think about the world and the way they view their connection to it.

Application Deadline: 11:59pm CT Thursday, October 8, 2015. All applications must be submitted through NEEF's online grants management system.

Fall Fitness Day

Walk at the Whistle
Live Healthy Iowa Kids is excited to be joining forces with the Healthiest State Initiative and the State Fire Marshal Division in continuing our message of healthy and active kids!

We are partnering to promote physical activity and fire safety on Oct. 7 by encouraging Iowa schools and youth organizations to 'Walk at the Whistle' by conducting a fire drill in conjunction with a Healthiest State Walk.

How to Participate:
1. Designate a coordinator for your event.
2. Plan a 1K walk route for your school or organization.
3.  Register your school or organization.
4. Conduct your Healthiest State Walk on Oct. 7.

Grant Opportunity:
Live Healthy Iowa Kids will award 15, $100 mini-grants to help support your efforts for the event on Oct. 7. Applications must be received by Sept. 28 at 4pm and can be submitted either by mail to 1421 S. Bell Ave #104, Ames, IA 50010 or by email to allie.paulson@livehealthyiowa.org.  

Exploring Iowa’s Natural Resources On-line Course (K-12 Educators)

October 3, 2015 – January 31, 2016

The goal of this course is to help you utilize a STEM-based approach that incorporates local natural resources as unifying themes to implement Iowa Core concepts in your curriculum. You will work in small groups and individually to create a network of contacts and resources to teach natural resource concepts. Group and individual assignments will build on each other throughout the course.

Participants will build a project-based learning unit for their personal teaching situation, so you can immediately incorporate the course resources and tactics into your teaching.

Registration deadline is September 25, 2015 - you must register electronically (Activity #: 22007499991601). Registration fee: $175 (3 license renewal credits); $395.00 ( 3 Drake graduate credits). This course is being offered by AEA PD Online, a joint initiative by all of Iowa's Area Education Agencies. This course therefore uses AEA PD Online's alternative fee schedule for license renewal and graduate credit. Transcripts and credit will be issued by AEA PD Online instead of Heartland AEA.

 

Fall 2015 Project WILD Field Test

The Council for Environmental Education (CEE), the national office for Project WILD, invites K-12 educators (formal and nonformal) to help field test activities being considered for publication in future editions of the Project WILD K-12 Curriculum & Activity Guide.

A limited number of $40 stipends are available for participating. Deadline to apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZM3MM7V is September 25, 2015. CEE will notify those selected to participate on October 1, 2015.

Activities typically require two 45 minute class sessions or the equivalent instructional time, and may also involve investigating outdoor areas, such as a school yard or park. Although you are welcome and encouraged to field test more than one activity, and to conduct a single activity with more than one class, only one $40 stipend will be provided to each participating educator.

Participant feedback is due to CEE via an online survey by Friday, December 4, 2015.

Celebrating Iowa’s Prairies

September 13th-19^th is Iowa Prairie Heritage Week!

Iowa’s landscape was once covered by vast rolling hills of prairie.  An estimated 85% of the land was prairie grass and flowers when European settlers first arrived.  Since that time the Iowa landscape has changed drastically and today only 1/10 of 1% of our native prairie remains. 

The largest remaining prairie remnants in Iowa can be found in the Loess Hills of Western Iowa.  Other prairie remnants can be found in old graveyards, railroad right-of-ways, road ditches and scattered in small patches on state, county or private lands.

Prairies are a diverse pool of plants species, are habitat for many wildlife species and are a protective buffer for ground and surface water supplies.

Even though native prairie in Iowa is scarce, over the past two decades prairie acreage has actually increased in Iowa.  Concerned Iowans have worked hard to restore and reconstruct prairie areas across the state. 

Several events are planned across the state to celebrate our prairie heritage.  Visit the Iowa Prairie Network Calendar of Events to find an event in your area. Contact your local county conservation board to learn more about prairies in your county.

Teaching about Prairies

• Have students, individually or in group, investigate prairie plants and/or animals. Ask students to find one or more benefits to people provided by each plant or animal in their investigations – a present, known benefit or a possible future benefit.
• Webs of life become obvious when you study prairies. Eliminating even one element in a prairie system can have a “ripple effect.” Have students list at least one other plant or animal on which their research subject depends for survival and hypothesize what would happen if that plant or animal disappeared.
• Analyze photographs of historical Iowa prairies and compare them to present day Iowa prairies.
• Many native prairie remnants still exist in Iowa in pioneer cemeteries. Take a field trip to one of these pieces of Iowa’s past. Contact your county conservation board or DNR wildlife management biologist to locate possible prairie sites in your area.

Helpful Websites

Camp Silos

Iowa Native Plants Database

Iowa Prairie Network

Missouri Botanical Gardens

National Geographic

National Wildlife Federation

Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Scientific American Frontiers

Tallgrass Prairie Center

 

Using Local History in Your Classroom

A human community is a group of people who live and interact with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental, social, and political conditions. A natural community is a group of plants and animals that live and interact with one another in a specific region under similar environmental conditions.

 

Our human communities are essential for our daily life. They satisfy our needs for food, and shelter, as well as provide social interactions. Human communities are dependent on the larger natural community which contains the soil, water, air, plants, and animals on which the human community is sustained. The natural community supports itself and our civilizations.

 

Every community is unique. Each has its own historical background, natural resources, attractions and unique features.

Explore your community’s history with your students. Check out these websites to help get you started.

• Teaching with Historic Places
• Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities and Traditions
• IPTV Pathways
• Explorations in Iowa History Project
• Making Family and Community Connections