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The Magazine • The
Teacher's Guide • Tailored
Resources
Terrain for Schools is a grant-funded environmental education
project of the Ecology Center that serves Northern Californian
high school teachers who are interested in using locally-relevant
curricula in their classrooms. The project has three essential
parts: the magazine, the teacher’s guide, and tailored resources.
Our services are offered to teachers free of charge.
The Magazine
Participating teachers receive free copies
or free classroom sets of Terrain
magazine, which covers ecology-related topics relevant to Northern
California. Teachers use the magazine in a variety of ways: as
a current-events adjunct to their studies, as the basis for research
projects, or to expose students to local case studies that exemplify
ecological problems and/or solutions. Students from various classrooms
have analyzed articles, written letters to the editor, and given
presentations on topics found in the magazine.
The Teacher’s Guide
The 24-page teacher’s guide that is distributed with the magazine
is full of science, social studies, and language arts lesson plans,
most of which correspond with articles in Terrain magazine. We
strive to help students experience learning directly related to
where they live by giving them the information and opportunity
to engage in discovery, thoughtful debate, and creative problem-solving
regarding ecological dilemmas.
Our lesson plans:
- fulfill California State Education Standards
- cover urban habitat issues as well as suburban, rural, and
wilderness issues
- give students opportunities to reference their own experiences,
value systems, opinions, and ideas
- are designed to be implemented without the extra expense,
planning, time, and staff that off-site extracurricular projects
require
Tailored Resources
If a teacher wishes to delve deeper into a particular topic,
such as recycling or solar energy, the project coordinator is
prepared to offer guest speaker recommendations, field trip recommendations,
and resource referrals. Teachers may attend the Ecology Center’s
workshops, use our lending library, or purchase books from our
store at discounted rates. We also offer free the recently updated
Bay Area Environmental Education Resource Guide, a comprehensive
listing of organizations in the nine counties of the Bay Area
that offer programs, events, and resources related to environmental
education for youth.
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