High School Curriculum

Introduction

The Helping Hands curriculum provides an opportunity to engage high school students in Great Lakes environmental stewardship. The lessons and hands-on activities apply to schools located in Great Lakes communities where large-scale environmental cleanup and restoration projects are taking place. Each Helping Hands lesson can be downloaded individually, or the entire curriculum is available as one document. The curriculum alignment with State, Next Generation, and National Science Education Standards can be found in the resources section of each lesson.

Lesson 1: Why Should We Keep the Great Lakes Great?

Students learn about an environmental cleanup in their community, including details about the scope and design. They will

Describe the benefits of the Great Lakes.
Discuss the effect of historical pollution on today's economy, society and environment.
Describe the technical aspects of an environmental cleanup.

Resources

Download Lesson 1 (PDF, 170 KB)
Download Example File (PDF, 6.9 MB) - editable .PPT file available to teachers upon request
Download Alignment Standards for Lesson 1 (XLS, 27 KB)

Lesson 2: Get the Lowdown on Your Local Water Quality

Students go on a field trip to a remediated portion of their local water body to take water samples, then perform a lab with water test kits to determine water quality. They will

Learn how to perform water sampling and data collection, adequately representing a section of the water body.

Resources

Download Lesson 2 (PDF, 302 KB)
Down Alignment Standards for Lesson 2 (XLS, 24 KB)

Lesson 3: Making Environmental Decisions through Data Analysis

Students make conclusions about the site water quality based on results from the data analysis activity. They learn how scientists use various communication strategies to communicate data to different groups and use data to make project-level decisions. They will

Analyze data using simple statistics.
Make conclusions about the environment using data.
Describe different strategies scientists use to communicate data to the public.
Explain how scientists use data to make project-level decisions.

Resources

Download Lesson 3 (PDF, 138 KB)
Download Scientific Data PowerPoint (PPT, 4.27 MB)
Download Alignment Standards for Lesson 3 (XLS, 26 KB)

Lesson 4: Dynamic Careers to Clean Up the Environment

Students learn about different careers in the environment as well as the teamwork aspect of environmental cleanups. This lesson includes the option to have a project scientist or engineer visit as a guest speaker to discuss careers and their roles in the cleanup. They will

Name important classes to take in high school and college in order to pursue an environmental career.
Describe careers in environmental science and engineering.
Describe the teamwork aspect of environmental cleanups.

Resources

Download Lesson 4 (PDF, 122 KB)
Download Career PowerPoint (PPT, 917 KB)
Download Alignment Standards for Lesson 4 (XLS, 20 KB)

Lesson 5: The Real Deal - Cleanup in the Field

Students tour the cleanup site and perform a litter cleanup. They will

Become connected to the site through stewardship activities.
Develop an understanding of the engineering and science behind the cleanup by seeing it firsthand.

Resources

Download Lesson 5 (PDF, 116 KB)
Download Alignment Standards for Lesson 5 (XLS, 21 KB)

Lesson 6: Meeting the Press

Contact IISG for information on press events related to the cleanup and to learn how to participate. Logistics and timing for the press event will be determined months in advance. Students can simply attend the event to listen to VIP speakers, or

A student could give a speech about their involvement.
Students could display a poster and answering questions about their water sampling project.
Students could grow plants in their classroom and bring them to install onsite.
Students could videotape the event and write a blog post or article for the school website.

Resources