Placed-Based Units

Curriculum kits for K-5 educators

We have transformed our educator-led lessons into complete curriculum kits to make it easy to teach ecology, from soil and water conservation districts to formal or informal educators. Our innovative approach integrates ecology across all core subjects and beyond the classroom to build critical thinking skills and deepen students' sense of place.

  • Comprehensive and ready-to-go

    Our curriculum kits integrate scientific concepts across social science, English language arts, math, and art, to make meeting classroom learning goals and academic benchmarks easy. You’ll have everything you need to lead hands-on lessons and take the learning outdoors!

  • Build confidence teaching

    Our easy-to-use, high-quality kits come with lesson plans, teacher guides, presentations, activities, and assessments accessible to teachers of all skill levels and tailored to specific learning objectives for kindergarten through fifth grade. Each unit gives you at least five hours of engaging content to use year after year.

  • Meet academic benchmarks

    Students participate in experiential, multidisciplinary ecology lessons while teaching targets meet Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core Science Standards, Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan, and Science Technology Engineering Art Math (STEAM).

ECO Adventures

ECO Adventures stars our knowledgeable educators and the stunning beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Ten action-packed, highly entertaining videos guide your students through habitats, soil, insects, and more to ignite their curiosity about local ecology. Whether shown as stand-alone lessons or with our Place-Based Units, they provide a thrilling journey through the wonders of nature!

Hands-on and multidisciplinary

Each unit follows an ecological theme through all core subjects. From exploring Beaver Adaptations to tracking the Journey of a Drop, you'll have tools to engage students of all learning styles through in-depth exploration and activities.

  • A teacher guide with background information and lesson procedures

    A comprehensive NGSS-aligned science lesson plan and corresponding activity

    Four integrated extension lesson plans for Math, English Language Arts, Social Science, and Art with accompanying hands-on activities, materials, and grade-level appropriate books

    Formative assessment tools including pre- and post-lesson student surveys to assess learning outcomes and evaluation based on the 6 P’s Critical Orientations for Indigenous Studies Curriculum

    Presentation slide decks

    Educational ECO Adventures film

    Relevant ECO-made games

    Custom printable vocabulary cards and student worksheets

  • Students can improve their reading and writing abilities by participating in fun activities such as games, worksheets, and storytelling. They may write nature haikus, work with field guides, or research ecological concepts.

  • Students delve into relevant books and articles to foster critical thinking and engage in meaningful discussions about social issues and activism. They have the opportunity to create a PSA, explore the rich history of local indigenous communities, and collaborate to identify solutions to pressing ecological concerns.

  • Teach grade-appropriate math skills through entertaining board games, sorting activities, or fractions to organize groups of animals. Students may even construct a honeycomb model using bee-ometry.

  • There are so many ways to explore ecological themes through art! Try creating field journals to record the variety of plants and animals, make mud paint, sun prints, or intricate mixed-media collages.

ECO is a great way to teach science with hands-on fun activities. The ECO teachers make every attempt and succeed in matching lessons with curriculum and also standards! What an amazing help for teachers and learning for students!

— Teacher, Seth Lewelling Elementary School

Great lessons! The math/science lesson with graphing fit PERFECTLY into our curriculum. We were thrilled that you had all of that data already available for us. It was incredibly meaningful to see the similarities and differences in rainfall right here, in our own state! Students were completely engaged. We are thrilled to be able to use these resources and hope that you set us up again next year so that we can use the kits again!

— Great Nonprofits

Lessons are organized, relevant, engaging, and fit into our instructional day seamlessly.

— Teacher, Lot Whitcomb Elementary

Interested in learning more?

Our pilot testing is complete and we are working to meet the demand for our Place-Based Units! Contact us to learn about what we currently have to offer. We'd love to help you get started.