What Teachers Receive

  • What Teachers Receive

Once you are accepted into the program, you will receive a full set of curriculum materials, which includes all of the items listed below.  You will be required to sign a Materials Loan Agreement and a Teacher Expectations Agreement, but you may keep the materials at no cost for as long as you continue to teach the curriculum.

  • Teacher's Manual - Includes 13 lessons, complete with color overheads
  • Critter Catalog - Laminated, color fact sheets about vernal pool animals
  • Flower Facts - Laminated, color fact sheets about vernal pool plants
  • The Mysteries of Vernal Pools - 10-minute DVD introduction to vernal pools
  • Fairy shrimp kit - Easy-to-use kit for growing fairy shrimp in your classroom
Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
What's in a name?

For Splash students, a "Tadpole Shrimp" is an endangered species that lives in vernal pools. For rice farmers, a "Tadpole Shrimp" is a common pest that destroys their rice fields. A rice farmer would think you were crazy wanting to save "Tadpole Shrimp" from extinction!

With scientific names, there's no room for confusion: the rice pest is Triops longicaudatus and the endangered species is Lepidurus packardi. Even a scientists who speak different languages can understand one another when they all use the Latin name!

Learn more about tadpole shrimp!
Assume that every part is important

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

- Aldo Leopold

Learn about the amazing animals that are the cogs and wheels of vernal pools.