As teachers at Indi-ED we get to provide so much more. We have autonomy and get to take full ownership of designing our curriculum based on our students’ needs and the interest they have expressed. But what does that really mean?
This year for example, I have a cohort full of nature and animal lovers. Most of them have been with me for a year or two already. Which means that I’m able to build off of our prior year’s learning and my understanding of who they are and their values and focus our science content this year, right here in our own backyard.
While integrating science, history, and environmental activism, they will be studying photosynthesis at the molecular level, building habitat replications of Tampa Bay, becoming environmental policy makers, and even debating real-world solutions to protect our precious ecosystems. This year’s theme? “From Roots to Restoration: Learning with Purpose.”
🌎 It All Begins in Tampa Bay…
We kicked off with a powerful essential question: What makes our home worth protecting?
Students dove into an introduction to Tampa Bay’s unique ecosystems by crafting detailed habitat dioramas, complete with local flora, fauna, and human impacts. But this isn’t just about gluing sea grasses and miniature mangroves. They plan to dive even deeper—literally and scientifically—into the molecular structure of photosynthesis, incorporated art, science, and environmental storytelling.
⛰️ The Ground Beneath Us Is Changing: Geology & Chemistry Collide
Next, we moved into the shifting geology of the St. Pete watershed, uncovering how the land, limestone, and water table have evolved, and how those changes affect everything from stormwater to salinity.
My students will have the opportunity to experiment with chemical properties of water and soil. They will become environmental chemists, predicting and testing reactions and understanding how pollutants interact with the natural world.
And we planned a quick trip to the Everglades, where students saw these changes up close in one of Florida’s most iconic and endangered ecosystems. They even had an opportunity to manage a budget that included flood insurance and making practice investments in protecting their community, taking ownership not only from an ecological standpoint, but from a financial one as well.
🗣️ From Scientists to Decision-Makers: The Debate Begins
Because my students understood the science, they went after an opportunity to communicate their thoughts in front of our state’s legislatures. Requiring empathy to step into the shoes of policy makers, activists, and scientists. They also participated in socratic discussions, heard from varying perspectives about development in our area, and are considering complex issues like development, conservation, pollution, and climate resilience.
Through collaborative research, persuasive writing, and public speaking, they drafted realistic policy proposals, advocated for environmental justice, and learned how decisions are made in the real world. And perhaps most importantly, how they can be part of shaping the future.
🪶 Honoring the Past: Native Knowledge & The Three Sisters
While we look to the future, we’re also honoring the deep-rooted wisdom of the past. During our trip to the Everglades we attended the Indigenous Arts and Music Festival and toured the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum to help launch us into a unit blending history and science, students will explore Native American agricultural practices, specifically the Three Sisters Garden, which consists of corn, beans, and squash.
They’ll learn how Indigenous people sustained the land and themselves through balanced ecosystems. They will compare and contrast the ways of the past to our current practices and then they will decide how they want to advocate for their future.
They’ll even grow their own Three Sisters garden while documenting plant growth, soil quality, and modeling what photosynthesis looks like on a molecular level, like real botanists!
🌟 The Grand Finale: Youth Environmental Summit
We never know where the year will take us, but when planning out this year, I have the vision to allow our students to come together and decide how they want to teach others about what they learned in a capstone event: the Jane Goodall and Roots and Shoots annual Youth Environmental Summit.
My students will reflect on their research, projects, debates, and policy solutions. They will become the teachers—they will decide what and how to engage the over 500 hundred participants at the summit. to an audience of peers, parents, and local leaders. From their replications to their data charts, their garden beds to their Everglades reflections, they will share what they’ve learned and why it matters.
Because this year, they won’t just learn about the environment, they’ll become stewards of it.