Soar! Watershed Dynamics PBL

My school was recently awarded a Toshiba America grant for a comprehensive environmental project, Soar!  Now, the real work begins integrating the project into the curriculum.  The first step took place in the fall: laying the groundwork.  Last November, the day before Thanksgiving Break, I held a half-day seminar on Watershed Dynamics for the students in Grades 6-12: an Enviroscape model with instruction, Project Wet activities, such as The Incredible Journey and Color Me a Watershed, graphing exercises, and an introduction to Cacapon Institute's e-school.

My Earth Science class is leading the Soar grant program and will provide lessons, guide fieldwork and field trips.  Presently, these kids are learning about the Project-Based Learning or PBLs.  The students selected topics germane to Natural Disasters and are researching their topics, locating videos, we quests, games, models, and activities.  The students are organizing their projects in wikispaces or on blogs to present to the class.  The idea is to use Buck Institute for Education and introduce PBLs simultaneously.  This way the kids will have a chance to better understand how to plan a unit with loads of varying resources.  The Earth Science class needs to be ready to work with other kids in all grades.  The next step is an introduction to the resources available.