Teach Tahoe Curriculum
Lessons | Video | Lake Tahoe Report
The term "Teach Tahoe" is used to refer to any lesson or curriculum which connects with the local environment of the Lake Tahoe Basin and Truckee River Watershed, and more specifically to refer to lessons which use the Lake Tahoe Report as an introduction or hook for lessons. The Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition (LTEEC) is the primary sponsor of the Teach Tahoe Curriculum, along with many other partners including Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP).
Teach Tahoe Lessons
The Teach Tahoe lessons are developed to fit into existing classroom curriculum, but use the Lake Tahoe Basin and the Truckee River Watershed as the focus of study. The Teach Tahoe Video and the Lake Tahoe Report video segments, developed by Lake Tahoe Environmental Education Coalition with other partners, and broadcast on KOLO-TV once per week, will be used as an entry point and topic for each lesson. The purpose of this effort is not to create new curriculum, but to make explicit connections between existing curriculum and the local environment, community, and civic issues. The lessons may directly replace an existing lesson, chapter, or extension – a replacement unit, or may supplement existing curriculum with a local focus.
The lesson below are ready for piloting, and are not final. You will find mistakes and inconsistencies. All document are either Adobe Acrobat pdf or jpeg. Please direct comments to Jan Ellis, .
Native Plants and Restoration (grades 3 & 4, authored by Suzie Dailey, Glenshire ES)
Watersheds (grades 3-5, authored by Kiersten Taylor, Sierra Nevada College)
- Build Your Own Watershed worksheet
- Harriet and Howard Human story
- What Do Watersheds Matter? article
- What Is A Watershed? worksheet
Erosion (grades 3-5, authored by Kiersten Taylor, Sierra Nevada College)
Common Materials
- Vocabulary for BMP Demonstration Projects (grades 3-6)
- Secchi Depth chart (jpeg)
- Algal Growth chart (jpeg)
- Pollution Table (jpeg)
- Lake Tahoe Basin map (gif)
- Lake Tahoe Basin model (jpeg)
- Cloudy Water photo (jpeg)
- Eroded Slope photo (jpeg)
- Periphyton photo (jpeg)
- Tahoe Students Care for Their Schoolyard... and the Lake (pdf)
- Teachers and Students Complete Schoolyard Restoration Project (pdf)
A pilot program of lesson plan development was funded through an EPA grant and other sources, and the resulting lesson plans are available here. No funding is currently available for development of additional lesson plans, but we encourage teachers and other educators to provide lessons they have developed so that they can be shared as part of the Teach Tahoe effort. Please contact Dan Allison, , 775-882-2375 if you have something to share.
Teach Tahoe Video
The Teach Tahoe Video has been developed as an introduction or hook for use with Teach Tahoe lesson plans and other curriculum. Selected Lake Tahoe Report segments have been combined into a 30 minute video on four topics: Watersheds and Water Quality, Erosion Control and BMPs, Native and Non-Native Plants, and Fire and Defensible Space. To obtain a copy of the video, please contact LTEEC at 775-832-4150 or . You will need to complete a survey form to get your copy of the video. A DVD version may be available in the future.
Four additional videos may be of interest to teachers using the Teach Tahoe video. Small, low resolution versions of these are available here. At the moment, these are not available on video tape or DVD in higher resolution.
• 530-525-9457 • PO Box 1096, Homewood CA 96141 • Revised 8/21/06
