Term
Fall 2018
Capstone
Capstone Project
Degree Name
MAT
Facilitator(s)
Julianne Scullen, Ed.S. and Feride Erku, Ph.D.
Content Expert
Anne Bartels
Abstract
Winter is typically viewed as a “dead” season in the midwestern United States, where temperatures are often below freezing and snow blankets the ground for much of the year. Teachers cite weather as a barrier to meeting proposed curriculum standards and point to cold climate as a barrier to outdoor learning. Outdoor education provides many social and emotional benefits to students. When we consider these benefits, we must ask ourselves why we allow the learning opportunities of winter to be wasted. One reason that few high school classrooms venture outside in the snow is due to the lack of lesson plans and units written for winter outdoor inquiry. Many resources exist for younger students, but very few exist for adolescents, especially those that are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. My goal for my capstone project was to help fill this gap in teacher resources in order to promote outdoor inquiry for the cold winter months. To meet this goal, I created two curricular units with many opportunities for outdoor investigation of concepts. The units contain both lesson plans and lab sheets to guide the students in their investigations. As a means of assessment, I have also included a project for students to complete after the units. The project requires students to work in groups to create a short lesson for younger students to experience outside. A students rubric and guide sheets are also included with the project.
Project Type
Outdoor Education, Biology
Keywords
Environmental Studies, Science
Recommended Citation
Wagner, Elizabeth, "Snow Science: Curricular Units For High School Outdoor Winter Inquiry" (2018). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects. 270.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_cp/270
dc_type
text
dc_publisher
DigitalCommons@Hamline
dc_format
application/pdf
dc_source
School of Education Student Capstone Projects