CURRICULUM: Via the Nature Conservancy & PBS

[Ryan Goble]

The Nature Conservancy and PBS LearningMedia bring you NEW content!

The Nature Conservancy and PBS LearningMedia have partnered to produce curriculum for the groundbreaking, new PBS television series, EARTH A New Wild, airing February 4th. To help you bring this amazing series into your classroom, The Nature Conservancy and PBS LearningMedia have produced new lesson plans and videos aligned with the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Content highlights are below and you can find the entire collection of EARTH A New Wild curriculum and videos on the Conservancy’s Nature Works Everywhere website.
 

	Farming the Desert | EARTH A New Wild Including both a geography lesson and a science lesson, students learn about a farmer from Burkina Faso named Yacouba Sawadogo who halted desertification on his farmlands by implementing innovative farming techniques that helped the land recover from desertification.  These are great companion lessons to the Virtual Field Trip to the Deserts and Grasslands of Africa.
	Sharks & Shorelines | EARTH A New Wild Research into tagging ocean predators, like sharks, has helped scientists better understand coastal ecosystems and their link to protecting shorelines. In this lesson, students learn about lemon sharks and how their grazing habits help keep mangrove ecosystems healthy.
	Vultures: India’s Clean-Up Crew | EARTH A New Wild Vultures fill a critical role in India’s urban food web as scavengers, feeding on dead animals or discarded prey. In this lesson, students explore the link between vultures’ niche as scavengers and human health in India.
	Living with Sumatran Elephants| EARTH A New Wild Elephants play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy environment on the island of Sumatra as ecosystem engineers, but with humans requiring large swaths of their forest territory, coexisting has not always been easy. In this lesson, students learn how elephants engineer the Sumatran forest ecosystem and why this is important for nature and the people living there.
	Wolves of Yellowstone| EARTH A New Wild Gray wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995, which has resulted in a trophic cascade, benefitting the health of Yellowstone National Park’s ecosystem. In this lesson, students explore the ecological impact of wolves in Yellowstone and how their re-introduction affects many types of people – from tourists and scientists to ranchers and business owners.