Watershed and Invasive Species Education (WISE) Program

The West Coast Sea Grant WISE program is dedicated to helping teachers learn about emerging watershed issues that engage students in science learning and community action. Now, more than ever, watersheds are straining under the weight of emerging issues such as climate change, invasive species, and contaminants. The WISE program addresses this problem by 1) engaging teachers and classrooms in learning about the science of watersheds using a standards based curriculum, and 2) supporting teachers and students to conduct community stewardship projects. Students have the opportunity to take action on a locally and globally important watershed need. A selection of available lessons are listed below.

Stone Soup: Invasive Species Cartooning

Students will develop and apply reading, language arts, and science processes to analyze comics, and demonstrate writing skills in creating their own comic about a local invasive species.

• Teacher pages
• Student pages

Mussel Quarantine Model

In this lesson students learn the life cycle of the zebra and quagga mussels, their impact on natural systems, and the risk of transport through boaters’ habits. Students will take the role of a boater to use a model for determining how long to quarantine their boats.

• Teacher and student pages

Design the Ultimate Invader

Design the ultimate invader is an assessment tool to help us learn the knowledge of our learners towards invasive species and invasion biology.  It also fosters creativity and teamwork to understand the mechanics and mechanisms that make species invasive.

• Teacher pages

Links and Resources

• For more lessons, visit the WISE website
• WISE one-pager

For more information, please contact Ms. Linda Chilton, Director of Education, 213.740.1965