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Housatonic River Curriculum Project


This place-based curriculum, specific to the Housatonic watershed, was developed by a team of Berkshire teachers and environmental consultants. It consists of three components: elementary, middle school, and high school. We invite you to access and use any and all portions of these curricula.

Elementary School

The elementary component was developed by Conte Community School and is a teaching guide— Discovering the Housatonic Watershed. It includes an introduction to the topic of watersheds with an abundance of information for both teachers and students. The second portion is a collection of activities for the K-8 classroom and the third provides resources for additional information.


Middle School

The cross-disciplinary middle school curriculum, developed by the Southern Berkshire Regional School District, meets a broad array of standards in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and provides a strong service-learning component. It includes an introduction to the history and ecology of the Housatonic and field trip guides for a canoe excursion and a trip to Bartholomew's Cobble, with units on history, ecosystem evaluation, water quality analysis, and math and art in nature. A final group project develops an essay, brochure, map and oral presentations, as well as guides to two service projects. 


High School 

The high school curriculum, developed at Taconic High School, consists of four modules. The first introduces the key concepts of topography and how to draw a topographic map. The second addresses historic land use and its impact on a watershed. The third is a guide to studying the invasive milfoil problem and the fourth shows students how to develop a Quality Assurance Project Plan for water quality testing.

 

This project is funded by the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

 


Although the information in this document has been funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement NE 981624-01-0 to Housatonic River Restoration, Inc., it may not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.