Mini Units
Our Mini Units are carefully designed to align with Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE), the New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These units are comprised of multiple lessons that integrate various MWEE activities, which are tailored to different grade levels and courses, such as Regents Biology, Middle School Science, and Elementary Life Science.
Each mini-unit can be taught as a complete unit or adapted to meet the specific needs of individual classrooms, allowing flexibility in both content and structure. Sections of the mini-units can also be used as stand-alone lessons. New lessons are added regularly to ensure the units stay relevant and aligned with evolving standards and curricula.
We welcome teacher input and encourage educators to request new mini-units via a simple Google form to help meet their classroom needs. These resources are created to support educators in delivering high-quality, standards-based MWEE lessons while fostering meaningful, hands-on learning experiences. We also encourage feedback through a brief survey included with each lesson to help us continue improving and enhancing our support for MWEE classroom adventures.
Habitats Around Us: Discovering Local Wildlife
In this lesson, students will explore the school grounds to identify and document various plants and animals. They will describe the available resources and explain how these resources impact local wildlife. Additionally, students will define the terms "threatened" and "endangered," and discuss why some species are more vulnerable to extinction than others.
Introduction to Watersheds
Through this lesson students will define a watershed and begin to understand its components.
Biology: Balancing Ecosystems
Students will utilize mathematics and computer models to explain how living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) factors in nature influence the number of organisms an environment can support. They will examine various sizes, quantities, and levels of these factors, using mathematical analysis to gain a deeper understanding of how different elements impact biodiversity and populations within ecosystems of varying sizes.