ECAI Teacher Resources

Below are many resources that will be useful to you in your classroom. If there's anything you think should be listed but isn't, please let us know. To find good aerial photos, go to Google Earth.

Field Data Access

General BTW Forms for Teachers

Mapping Our Parks: An Online GIS

Mapping our Parks Fieldscope

General BTW Activites

Shad Activity

Don't Get Sedimental

Talkin' Trash

Water Canaries

Watershed Watchdogs

Poster Slide Template for Final Institute Presentations

Take-Home Challenge

This concept was created by Allegany County teacher Tom Kozikowski. For his research paper and original documents, please click here. Scroll down to "How far does your environmental education go? Home Challenges."

The Take Home Challenge is a simple way to encourage your students to take basic water-saving or solid-waste-reducing actions in their lives. A teacher in Allegany County, Maryland developed the concept to provide some structure and support to his students. He found that, after an incentivized two-week period, most of his students continued to take the actions on their own.

We are inviting all BTW teachers to try this challenge with their students this spring. The class that has the highest success rate (# actions/student at 2 and 6 weeks) will receive a pizza party with your BTW Educator before the end of the school year.

How it works:

In a part of your curriculum where it would be appropriate, introduce the idea of the Take-Home Challenge to your students. This may be after your field study, as part of the culminating activities for a BTW module.

1. Facilitate a class discussion about the ways that they can practice water conservation or sustainable solid waste management at home, and why those actions have a positive impact on water quality.
2. Direct students to the Take Home Challenge survey (use this one for water conservation, and this link for solid waste management). There should be an incentive for participation in the challenge (as evidenced by completion of the surveys), such as homework credit. If your students do not have easy access to the internet, please contact us for a pdf of the survey that you can print for them.
3. For the next two weeks, remind students of their commitments.
4. At the two week mark, ask students to take this survey. We will send you copies of the results so you can lead a discussion with your students about their efforts, the benefits, and the challenges.
5. At the six week mark, ask your students to take this survey. We will send you copies of the results so you can lead a discussion with your students about their efforts, the benefits, and the challenges.

This is a new activity for Bridging the Watershed. We welcome your feedback on the concept and the logistics, as well as stories of how it worked for you and your students. Please email us with your ideas and suggestions.

Grant and Professional Development Opportunities

K-12 Students Invited to Tackle Environmental Issues for the Third Annual Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education, and the National Science Teachers Association have announced the launch of the third annual Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, a program designed to educate, empower, and engage students and teachers across the United States to become "Agents of Change" in identifying and solving environmental problems.

All students, from kindergarten through grade 12, to team up with their classmates to create replicable solutions to environmental issues in their schools (grades K to five), community (grades six to eight), and world (grades nine to twelve).

Teams will be judged on both their ability to create a positive, measurable solution to a local sustainability issue or challenge using scientific methodology and their ability to explain how the solution can be replicated by other communities. Student and teacher/mentor prizes, which vary according to grade level, include savings bonds and school grants.

Excess Property from NIH. NIH (National Institutes of Health) gives away extra stuff they have (such as paper, computers, printers and other such things) to teachers. Click here for sample forms. Exact inventories are constantly shifting, so be patient! Teachers must go to the NIH site in Bethesda, MD for pickup.