Elementary Curriculum: Investigating Vernal Pools

This is a 13-lesson, standards-based science curriculum designed to integrate with a hands-on field trip to the vernal pools at Mather Field. The curriculum prepares the students for their field trip by teaching them all about vernal pools and the plants and animals that live in them. 

All lessons linked below are in PDF format. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the files.

Teacher's Manual | Transparency Pages | Critter Catalog & Flower Facts | Introductory Video | Additional Activities | Download Entire Program

Teacher's Manual - Version 3

Note: You can download the entire Teacher's Manual at the bottom of the page.

Introduction

• Cover, Title Page & Table of Contents

Lesson One: The Watershed Connection

• What is a Watershed?
• Sacramento River Watershed Map
• Your Place in the Watershed Worksheet
• Watershed Crossword & Wordfinder Worksheet

Lesson Two: Introduction to Vernal Pools

• What are Vernal Pools?
• The Vernal Pool Grassland
• Vernal Pools and Human History
• Vernal Pool Landscape Worksheet
• Introduction to Vernal Pools Worksheet

Lesson Three: Vernal Pool Phases and Introduction to Critters

• The Wet Phase: Winter in the Vernal Pools
• The Flower Phase: Spring in the Vernal Pools
• The Dry Phase: Summer and Fall
• The Three Phases of a Vernal Pool
• Vernal Pool Cross-Section Worksheet
• Vernal Pool Phases Worksheet

Lesson Four: Looking Like a Scientist

• Directions to Grow Your Own Fairy Shrimp
• The Classroom Laboratory
• Student Data Sheet
• Class Data Sheet
• Lab Report
• Critter Pie Worksheet
• (See also Appendix E)

Lesson Five: Tools for the Pools

• Metric Rulers
• It's a Matter of Size
• Metric Measurements Worksheet
• Scale Up and Scale Down Worksheet
• How Big is That Tattoo? Worksheet

Lesson Six: Create Your Own Critter Field Guide

• Critter Group Assignments
• Critter Guide Table of Contents
• Fairy Shrimp Critter Card
• Critter Guide Worksheet

Lesson Seven: Critter Commercials

• Oral Language Rubric
• Critter Commercial Worksheet
• Critter Commercial Notes

Lesson Eight: What's For Dinner?

• Sharing Energy in the Food Web

Lesson Nine: Flower Facts

• Why Do Plants Have Flowers?
• Flower Parts & Pollination Worksheet
• Flower Pie Worksheet

Lesson Ten: Create Your Own Flower Guide

• Flower Guide Table of Contents
• Flower Guide Worksheet

Lesson Eleven: Create an Origami Book

Lesson Twelve: Water Quality

• Wastewater and Runoff
• Keeping Our Water Clean
• How You Can Help Keep Runoff Clean Worksheet
  

Lesson Thirteen: How You Can Help

Teacher's Manual Appendices

Appendix A

• Glossary & Special Illustration

Appendix B

• Academic Standards

Appendix C

• Field Trip Information

Appendix D

• Assessment Test
• Teacher Evaluation

Appendix E

• Fairy Shrimp Growing Instructions
• Fairy Shrimp Observation Page Student Worksheet

Transparency Pages - Version 3

The lesson pages and worksheets from the Teacher's Manual can be made into transparencies for use in class discussion. Using a color transparency in the classroom while distributing black-and-white versions for individual student use is an economic way to share the handouts. Worksheets can be made into black-and-white  transparencies to be completed as a class participation project.

• Color Transparency Pages (15 pages, 7.3 MB)
• Black-and-white Transparency Pages (20 pages, 2.0 MB)

Critter Catalog & Flower Facts - Version 3

The Critter Catalog & Flower Facts are available in web browser format in the Explore & Investigate section. High-resolution printer-friendly PDF versions are also available for those who may wish to compile the fact sheets into a loose leaf binder. We recommend that these be laminated, if possible .

Critter Catalog

• Single-sided Pages (2 pages, 237 Kb)
• Double-sided Pages (38 pages, 3.7 MB)
• Individual Critter Pages (replacements)

Flower Facts

• Single-sided Pages (11 pages, 1.0 MB)
• Double-sided Pages (33 pages, 3.6 MB)
• Individual Flower Pages (replacements)

Additional Activities

Critter and Flower Activity Cards
4" by 3-1/4" cards can be used for a variety of match and recognition games. These can also be great references for use during field trips, especially if you laminate the pages.

Wet Phase and Flower Phase  Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunt worksheets that can be used during field trips to Mather Field. 

Flower Power Notes 
Lesson Nine extension which allows students to give commercials about the flowers and take notes about the other flowers. 

Download the Entire Program

High-resolution printer-friendly PDF files of the entire educational program are available for download. Note that these files are very large and download times may be up to an hour each depending upon your connection. To download the files using your web browser, right click (or option click) on the links below and select "save target as..."

• Teacher's Manual (17.8 MB)
• Teacher's Manual Appendices (987k)
• Critter Catalog  (4.1 MB) or
  • Single-sided Pages (3 pages, 237 Kb)
  • Double-sided Pages  (38 pages, 3.7 MB)
• Flower Facts  (4.5 MB) or
  • Single-sided Pages (11 pages, 1.0 MB)
  • Double-sided Pages (33 pages, 3.5 MB)
• Glossary (112k)
• Special Illustrations (171k)