| "This is a really important topic, yet not enough people know about it, so we are teaching kids what they can do." | |
| Robin Goettel, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program |
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Grade school students are being taught the rap song "We've Gotta Survive" by Great Lakes Sea Grant programs. The bass-driven song isn't about life on the urban streets, but is about the "hood in the lakes" being invaded by exotic species.
"We've created activities that are fun" to teach Kindergarten through 12th-grade students about non-native species, says Valerie Eichman, education projects assistant with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program. "We've developed games and simulations where students become the animals and species from the lakes to teach concretely what is difficult to understand in the abstract."
The rap song and games are part of ESCAPE, or the Exotic Species Compendium of Activities to Protect the Ecosystem, a collection of 36 lessons and activities that teachers can use to educate students about the devastating effect foreign invaders can have on native ecosystems.
"This is a really important topic, yet not enough people know about it, so we are teaching kids what they can do," says Robin Goettel, communications coordinator for the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program.
The compendium, developed in 1998 by collaborating Great Lakes Sea Grant programs, includes easily duplicable class handouts, a CD-ROM of songs and games, a video, art projects, puzzles, simulations, and experiments. Many of the activities are multidisciplinary and span curriculum areas of science, geography, math, and language arts.
The activities were created by 125 teachers who attended workshops in five Great Lakes States. The day-long workshops provided the educators with the latest scientific findings, and field trips gave them the opportunity to see exotic aquatic species in the marine environment, Goettel explains. "We wanted the teachers to have firsthand experience with the species themselves."
Groups of teachers were then given four to six weeks to create the activities. Goettel notes that scientists and educators in agencies and academic institutions throughout the U.S. reviewed the resulting activities, which meet National Science Education Standards.
"The revision process was quite extensive," she says. The reviewers "made it a much higher quality product, both scientifically and educationally." The resulting activities have been pilot tested by 16 teachers in eight states.
Eichman says the Great Lakes Sea Grant programs are working with teacher and education associations to promote the compendium, and have conducted workshops and demonstrations all over the country. Close to 300 compendiums have been distributed.
"I'm totally enthusiastic about it," Goettel says. "It's gone way beyond our wildest dreams in terms of the activities that were created, just in their variety, and multidisciplinary nature."
To purchase ESCAPE, point your browser to www.iisgcp.org/. The cost of ESCAPE is $58 plus shipping. A laminated color version of two game boards costs $10. Purchased together, the compendium and the game boards cost $65. For more information, you may also contact Robin Goettel at (217) 333-9448 or goettel@uiuc.edu.
