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Zombie Guacamole (5th)

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Zombie Guacamole is an upper elementary curricular program created by EarthGen. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district, please let us know! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information. In Zombie Guacamole, students build an evidence-based explanation of why a bowl of guacamole was found at the bottom of a 25-year-old landfill, still fresh! The focus of this program is decomposition: what is required for it to occur, its importance to ecosystems, and how waste systems are linked to the health of people and the environment. Students develop explanatory models to describe the movement of matter in an ecosystem and work in groups to manipulateconditions for decomposition in an investigation. Beyond that, students also build knowledge of natural and human-made systems of food production and waste management to inform action in their school community to protect Earth’s resources and environment. Through Zombie Guacamole, students can combine scientific understanding, environmental consciousness, and action to become leaders for a more just and sustainable future.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Unit of Study

Authors: Cameron Foy, EarthGen Washington, Washington OSPI OER Project

The Story of Land and Water (2nd Grade) - Curricular Supplement

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The Story of Land and Water is an early elementary unit. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district, please let us know! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Full Course

Authors: EarthGen Washington, Washington OSPI OER Project

Monarch Mystery (Kindergarten)

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Welcome to Monarch Mystery! This curriculum for Kindergarten students is grounded in a local phenomenon about missing Monarch butterflies and is shared through the eyes of a young migrant girl named Violeta, who is currently living in Naches, Washington after moving from Mexico with her family to be farm workers. This unit, while anchored in science, is also grounded in practices of culturally responsive pedagogies that center, acknowledge, and honor the profound knowledge, experiences, historicities, and cultures of migrant and bilingual youth and their families and communities. This also allows the curriculum to be taught in ways that integrate other content areas like English Language Arts and Geography. Ultimately, science is taught within a respective context that promotes students’ sense of belonging and identities. Additionally, this unit, like all units from EarthGen, prepares teachers and students to apply their newfound knowledge toward a culminating student-led action project that supports their community and addresses local environmental challenges of relevance and importance to them.  

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Full Course

Author: EarthGen Washington

Breathing Easier (5th)

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Breathing Easier is a 5th-grade curricular program created by EarthGen. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district, please let us know! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information.EarthGen and Puget Sound Clean Air Agency have partnered to develop opportunities for learning about local air quality (AQ). Using interactive maps, multimedia resources, classroom discussions, community science, and data analysis, students will explore the causes of air pollution and its relationship to environmental justice. These lessons are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and encourage students to engage in argumentation from evidence and propose solutions to socio-ecological issues of air quality and public health for communities in Washington.  

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Cameron Foy, Washington OSPI OER Project, Becky Bronstein, EarthGen Washington

In the Dark (MS) - A Curricular Framework

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In the Dark is a Middle School curricular program framework created by EarthGen. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district, please let us know! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information. 

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: EarthGen Washington

Agricultural Connections (MS) - A Curricular Framework

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Agricultural Connections is a middle school curricular program framework created by EarthGen. For this unit, we offer professional development training and assistance with implementation. Please let us know if you are interested in implementing this program at your school or district! Please contact info@earthgenwa.org for more information. 

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: EarthGen Washington, Washington OSPI OER Project

Using the Washington Tracking Network to Study Climate Impacts

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These five modules introduce secondary science teachers to a powerful resource, from the Washington State Department of Health, entitled the “Washington Tracking Network” (WTN).  This is a tool for mapping (a) the distribution of numerous factors that influence public health, and (b) the inequitable distribution of health outcomes. This wonderful system naturally invites us to inquire about the intersections of biological, societal, and environmental issues. The overarching goal of these five  modules is to support teachers to design student activities that (1) inspire and connect students to real world health & environmental data, and each other, (2) promote clean air, land, and water, (3) promote the use of the Washington Tracking Network data mapping system, (4) support equitable, 3-dimensional learning, including the use of community wisdom to solve public health issues, and (5) use science for student action and leadership in response to current and historical misuses of science. These modules were created in collaboration with epidemiologists and communications professionals from the Washington Department of Health.

Material Type: Module

Author: Cheryl Lydon