The River Classroom

 

The following are summaries of curriculum packages available to those educators in Florida who want to use the Wekiva River system as a focus for classroom lesson plans.  

Watching Wildlife in the Wekiva River Basin" and its companion volume "Wekiwa Springs State Park Habitat Tour" are illustrated spiral-bound "check-it-off" field guides, both over l00 pages long. "Watching Wildlife in the Wekiva River Basin" is a guide to wildlife, and "Wekiwa Springs State Park Habitat Tour" focuses on plants and habitats. These informative, well-written books are for sale in the River Store, with proceeds to the Friends of the Wekiva. While not specifically curriculum packets, these two books are interactive teaching guides that can be used by teachers and interested students.

While none of the packages in this list specifically address the issues of the Wekiva River, all deal with various aspects of natural history and conservation related to river and terrestrial systems in Florida. Of them, the “Florida Black Bear Curriculum Guide” may perhaps be the most relevant to the Wekiva, in that the Wekiva Basin is home to the most dense population of Florida black bears in the state. The bear is considered an ‘umbrella species.” As a result, the territory the bear needs to roam also represents vast habitats shared by many other plants and animals. If we can keep the bear in the landscape, we can protect many of these other critters as well!

For more specific information and data about the Wekiva River system and its springs, please see our complete bibliography of research under VALUABLE LINKS. All of those web sites, scientific reports and books were reviewed during the research phase of “Wekiva: Legacy or Loss?”  These resources are extensive and widely diverse, and can provide background for many lessons, from K-12, through college and even post-grad levels, depending on the depth of the resource.

Further curriculum which specifically addresses the Wekiva River system is currently under development, and will be posted on this site when complete.

Thanks for visiting our site. And Happy Teaching!

Bill Belleville
Writer, Co-producer
Wekiva: Legacy or Loss
Billybx@gate.net

If you have projects you would like to publish on this site or comments on any of these items, please contact:     

Steve Phelan, Professor of English, Rollins College phelan@rollins.edu