Participating School: Petaluma High School
Teachers: Linda Judah
Subjects: Biology & Community Health
Grade Level: 10th
Collaborators: Point Blue (STRAW)

Essential Question: How do environmental changes to place serve as a selective pressure driving the ecology? How can we engineer an outdoor space that will support local wildlife & benefit our school community?

Project Summary

The goal for this year is to create a strong NGSS program of study in which to learn biological principles through a focus on place, environmental change, evolution, and engineering to meet environmental change. Over the course of the school year biology students will practice 21st century computing, research and engineering skills in order to use their understanding of biology to create solutions to environmental change within our watershed. Students will develop and work to implement a plan to create an outdoor classroom at our school site that will be resistant to climate change, and that will support the ecology of our watershed. The project is proposed to benefit the human population of our school community, and will also support wildlife.

Download the Curriculum

Year two

Year three

Resources

The mapping principles provided by Jane Gooddall's Roots and Shoots program.

Instructions for collecting invertebrate data during quadrat surveying.

Lab instructions for comparing Petaluma River water samples to samples from the on-campus pond.

Instructions for exploring data collected on species found on the McNear Peninsula of Steamer Landing Park in previous years.

Instructions for creating a climate smart restoration plan.

Student Work 2018-2019

Students made videos to explain their Watershed Classroom project, field trips, and what they’ve learned. The videos were presented at our 2019 Student Showcase.