Students at Hilsboro's Glencoe High spun a tale about an adventurous young turtle to introduce young audiences to the threats posed by invasive species.
Aquatic Invasive Species Toolkit
for k-12 teachers and their students
Invasive species are organisms that are introduced from somewhere else and take over the environment. They cause problems for other plants, animals, and people. Invasive species often have physical traits that enable them to reproduce and spread rapidly and outcompete native species for resources. And invasive species often have physical traits that make them difficult to control.
The Aquatic Invasive Species Toolkit is a comprehensive set of fun, challenging, inspiring lessons and activities designed to help kids understand what invasive species are, how they affect the environment, and what we can all do about them.
Sea Grant programs and k-12 teachers in Oregon, Washington and California have collaborated to create and share these resources for teaching students and the larger public about invasive species and how to prevent or stop their spread.
We plan to post several of those projects here on the Web. In the meantime, here's a sample:
Tools you can use
Presentations
Originally created using a variety of different computer programs, these presentations have been recreated as Adobe Flash slideshows for quick downloading and easy access on the Web. Text versions serve as narrative scripts for the slideshows, and also make the content accessible to the visually impaired. Download the free Flash player here.
- Dr. Deb Rodgers's Guide to Invasive Species In Oregon - A slide presentation and script produced by students Megan McGinnis and Shannon Reiter with guidance from their teacher Linda Wolf at Glencoe High, Hilsboro, OR. Clever drawings and an engaging story line introduce young audiences to invasive species. The project won the 2009 "Invader Crusader" award from the Oregon Invasive Species Council
Flash slideshow | Accessible text version and reading script
Questions and answers for students and teachers (MS Word doc)
Download the PowerPoint presentation (8MB zip-compressed file) - Tips for making the most of your PowerPoint presentations.
More teacher and student-developed projects can be found and downloaded at http://invasivespecies101.wordpress.com
Fact sheets and activity guides
from Oregon Sea Grant
- Asian Carp fact sheet
printable .pdf | Accessible text version - Asian Carp Activities
printable .pdf | Accessible text version - Zebra and Quagga Mussels Fact Sheet
Printable .pdf | Accessible text version
Zebra and Quagga Mussels Activities
Printable .pdf | Accessible text version
Teacher Lesson Plans
- Design the Ultimate Invader (grades 9-12, adaptable for all grades)
Printable .pdf | Accessible text version - Special Oregon Field Guide Report: Crayfish Invasion. School science projects inadvertently spread an eastern invader to Northwest waters:
See also: AIS publications
Note: Accessible versions are plain-text HMTL files without illustrations, suitable for use with screen-readers and other accessiblity devices. They are also faster to download for those on slow Internet connections.