Education

Our District offers educational programming including workshops on many topics, school education, landowner certification and online and social media resources. Please contact us if you are interested in scheduling a workshop on agriculture, forestry, soil and water management, invasive plants and pests, ecology, nature, land management or related topics. See our Events Calendar for current workshop offerings.

Other Regional Education Resources

Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, Friends of Sears Island, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Midcoast Conservancy, Georges River Land Trust, and Belfast Free Library offer workshops and outings related to environmental concerns, conservation, and nature study for all ages. Waldo SWCD partners with these organizations to offer educational programming.

City Park Arboretum Our District has developed an arboretum in the Belfast City Park, which includes many resources for learning about and identifying trees. See our arboretum page for more information.

Wales Park Community Garden We have developed a certified demonstration pollinator garden in Wales Park in Belfast. Stop by to see labeled pollinator plants you can grow to create pollinator and insect habitat in our area. The garden is certified by the University of Maine, and contains all the elements of insect and pollinator habitat required.

Wales Park Pollinator Garden Map and Key Garden Pollinator Plant List and Growing Chart

Online Resources for K-12 education

We have gathered many of the best resources for K-12 environmental education below. For adult and other 9-12 resources, please see other links in the Resources and Conservation Landscape Certification sections of our website.

Latest Resources

Maine Audubon Connections Lessons for parents and teachers to help children learn about ecology at home and outside. Great resource!

Agriculture, Soil, Water, Gardening

Ag in the Classroom Lessons Portal Large set of lesson resources on many agricultural topics

NACD (National Association of Conservation Districts) Educational Resources Many lessons and materials on Soil Health, Wildlife, Forests and Conservation

EPA Environmental Education Resources

Dig In Student Gardening Resources

Maine School Garden Network

Collective School Gardening Network A portal with a search tool for school gardening lessons and other resources.

Teach Me About Food and Farms Lesson Portal

Soil Education

Soil Life A great site for learning about soil, with highly visual, short lessons on soil concepts and importance. Very appropriate for secondary teachers doing a soil unit.

NACD Soil Education resources This portal has a variety of links to soil information and education resources. See also the student booklets here.

Soil Health Institute Educational Resources A portal of information on all soil topics. Also includes K-12 lessons and resources.

Wiki Watershed Tools for exploring your watershed including mapping and calculating runoff, measuring water quality, etc.

 Schoolyard / Backyard Habitat

Resources from Our District

Learning Activities for Planting and Growing Trees

Land Certification Checklists These checklists can be used by teachers to assess habitat near the school, and to guide activities to create schoolyard habitat. See the Land Certification Resource Guide and Book List for other ideas.

Other Habitat Resources

National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat Excellent, broad set of resources for developing a schoolyard wildlife habitat.

Pollinator Unit for Project Based Learning (PBL) Includes an overview of PBL

Wildlife, Ecology, Forests

Maine Audubon Connections Lessons for parents and teachers to help children learn about ecology at home and outside. Great resource!

Project Learning Tree  Has many excellent teaching guides available for many environmental education topics across all grade levels. Many of these guides are available for you to use at the WCSW Conservation District. Now with many online resources: Simply register here to access online lessons.

Forest Ecology Research Network A complete field study opportunity for secondary students to measure trees and forest conditions in their own study plots. WCSW can assist you in implementing this program which teaches data collection and analysis as well as Maine forest ecology.

Project Wild Project WILD is a wildlife-focused conservation education program for K-12 educators and their students. Project WILD is one of the most widely-used conservation and environmental education programs among educators of students in kindergarten through high school.

BirdSleuth K-12 From Cornell University, a wonderful resource for teaching about birds. Also see their bird education site All About Birds.

Xerces Society (Insect/pollinator focus) Education Resources  Insect and pollinator teaching resources.

Project EduBat Free “trunk” of materials for teaching children about bats.

 Biodiversity

Biodiversity Teaching Resources Suggested resources and links to tools such as identification keys.

Encyclopedia of Life A vast resource and library of life on earth. See Education section for teaching resources.

The Macaulay Library A wonderful resource to see, hear and learn about bird and wildlife species, very visual and sound-oriented, and easy to use for students.

Invasive Species

Plant Heroes Highly engaging activities for kids on invasive insects such as emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle (ALB).

USDA Resources for Children on invasive insects

More Links for Educating Outdoors

NBEC Outdoor Learning Resources for Schools and Teachers

Tips for teaching outdoors: http://www.birdsleuth.org/leading-groups-outdoors-tips/

https://www.plt.org/about-us/connecting-kids-to-nature/

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/outdoor-education/

http://www.education.com/activity/outdoor/

http://www.educationworld.com/holidays/archives/earthday.shtml