Local Science

Objectives

  • To have a place educators can go to get high quality science curriculum
  • To connect local educators to some life science related resources that are not well advertised but cheap and or even free.
  • To help teachers save time by providing  often difficult to find resources relating to the forests of the North Coast including mixed Douglas-fir forests, Coast redwood forests, and oak woodlands.

Forest Ecology Curriculum

I started Local Science to provide a website where you can purchase my Forest Ecology Curriculum: Forest Ecology 101. Besides forest ecology curriculum there are links to several other resources including marine biology for K-5 and a wide range of place based natural history subjects for K-6.

The overview of my forest ecology curriculum titled Forest Ecology 101 is available on Curriculum page .

My experience and connections

I’ve been connected to teaching and science education for over 30 years now. I taught high school science classes including general biology and field biology for almost 20 years. In 2010, I got a job designing a thematic, place-based, year-long, K-6 Lost Coast Environmental Education Curriculum shortened to LCEER. This curriculum connects kids to the King Range and surrounding area, located in Northern Mendocino and Southern Humboldt Counties, but useful for anywhere where you want to have youth explore natural history concepts. Topics include geology, plants, animals, watersheds, and of course forests. Here is a link to the Friends of the Lost Coast.

In 2012, I expanded into curriculum development for grades 7-12 right when I was on the cutting edge because the Next Generation Science Standards were in their infancy. At the time it was new to have curriculum aligned to the NGSS and of course it is still relevant today. My cornerstone project has been shortened into a more useful name: Forest Ecology 101 which is highlighted on this website. I obtained my master’s degree in Biology in 2014 through Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt). During this time, I was able to work for the California Legacy Project, partnered with the USGS, and became a “biologist” for a year and had a small part as an archivist in the grammy high quality film, Becoming California. If you haven’t seen Becoming California click on the link to open up the page. It is one of the best films when it comes to understanding California geology through the lens of several parks.

In 2018-19, I became the lead curriculum developer and writer for the Marine Protected Area Teacher Toolbox. Focusing on marine science took me out of my comfort zone and throughout the process I found a total lack of good resources to teach about our coastal areas. We finished the project in 2019 and the Toolbox is now available for check out by any teacher who wishes to teach more about marine science in the K-5 grades.  There are two toolboxes (teaching boxes) available at the Humboldt County Office of Education and the Mendocino County Office of Education. They are not well known or advertised so you will have to ask.

My latest collaborative project was working with Michael Kauffmann and Deborah Zierten, through the Save the Redwoods League, where they had teachers new K-12 STEM curriculum. These lessons are centered on concepts relating to the Coast Redwood forest. Lessons are free and available at the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) at this link.

Plant walk on the Lost CoastCommunity Service

One of my favorite things to do is to help others understand our local natural history. I can lead plant walks or come into the classroom to talk about local animals, forest ecology, redwood research, local geology, and a host of other topics. Contact me if you need a volunteer. Contact me via email.