Planning a training program for specific audiences and geographic sites

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Section Three. Designing Biocontrol Lesson Plans. Planning a training program for specific audiences and geographic sites

Navigating the Biocontrol In Your Backyard portal



Step Three. Planning a training program for specific audiences and geographic sites


In Section Three Step Two, you considered a variety of stand alone elements to sequence as a lesson plan. You learned how monitoring methods vary by invasive plant, biocontrol agent, and site. In Step Three you will consider how geography and site specific needs become a focus. You will relate core elements on the Biocontrol In Your Backyard portal to how a county-wide teacher workshop set in motion a learning station to meet specific needs identified by two county weed districts, a State wildlife resources aquatics program manager, a wildlife Refuge, and a river corridor friends group.

Brief Overview. All it takes to make a real difference in a watershed is a motivated teacher, student, citizen, agengy landmanager, or professional who is interested in a natural area—and a little coordination with local resources. A national trend for teachers to engage in service learning is the focus of Step Three. It is not as difficult as it may seem, especially if you are conducting service learning to stop weed spread. The partnerships and concerned citizen groups are already in place in the Intermountain West.

Case Study. Friends of the Bear River and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service developed a program, "Mountains Wild to Wetland Wonders", to engage thirty-seven 4th Grade Teachers from fourteen county schools in adapting science curriculum to meet Utah requirements to teach to the core of Utah's Ecosystems: Mountains, Wetlands, and Deserts. In 2011, 4th Grade Teachers decided to focus on Utah's invasive native and non-native plants as the topic for learning stations. In Winter 2012, teachers designed an invasive plant learning station from concepts learned at a training workshop that included content found in this portal. The invasive plant learning station is one of four stations that teachers designed for a two-week series of Spring field trips to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as host to 947 Box Elder County students.

Four learning stations were designed: a water trailer to show how a watershed works, a macroinvertebrate station to test water turbulence to predict which macroinvertebrates will be present at the Refuge, a third station toured the Refuge to observe birds, fish, and wildlife. The fourth station was game oriented to show how quickly, if left to spread, invasive plants can reduce native and desired plant populations. The game was designed by teachers following a training workshop that combined many of the elements in the Biocontrol In Your Backyard Portal. Teachers took what they knew about their students, how it tied with what they could do as teachers, and the opportunities they found collaborating with the Refuge, county weed supervisors, State agency wildlife resources, and USDA APHIS Plant Protection Quarantine. Teachers were not aware of the local resources available to them until the training workshop.

Together with the Refuge conservation educators, teachers practiced the game at the Refuge prior to the Spring 2012 field trips. Teachers independently led the learning station activities when students arrived in the Spring. Fourth Grade students engaged in a game in which they quickly came to understand invasive plant characteristics and how quickly invasive plants can change a landscape as they use up air, water, space, and nutrients necessary for survival.

The objective of Step Three is to encourage concerned citizens, students and teachers to seek out local resources when you want to make a difference for a natural area in your neighborhood or watershed. The Refuge objective is to assist the community by elevating awareness of the dangers of allowing Phragmites australis to spread along the Bear River's riparian corridor. It was easy for teachers to see how they could help. The following tasks helped teachers accomplish their objective to include Utah's invasive plants into their State Core Curriculum.

Task 3.1. Gather local resources and establish a focus or objective. Refuge educators, county weed program managers, and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources aquatic invasive species program manager, matched up their concerns for the Bear River riparian corridor as a weed that is both native and non-native, Phragmites australis, or common reed. Each collaborator provided a trainer for the late winter teacher workshop, where teacher's engaged in activities that are found here, in the biocontrol portal.



Task 3.2. Design a Game.Teachers reviewed what they learned at a late winter workshop and designed a game they named "Wetland Wonders. Alien Attack: Weeds in our Wetlands". Designing "Alien Attack" is no different from what you accomplished in Steps One and Two. Teachers selected elements targeting a 4th Grade audience, taking it one step further to make it applicable to a spring field trip learning station at the Refuge. They selected the weed of concern for the Refuge and designed the game around a concept that complemented the studies required to meet Core for Utah's Ecosystems.

Teachers learned about a weed that is of concern to the Refuge, Phragmites australis, or common reed. Native and non-native phragmites species live on the Refuge. It takes an expert to tell the difference between the native and non-native species. To manage phragmites species on the Refuge, a native insect serves as a bioagent and the Refuge management contains the plant at less than 10% of vegetative population across the Refuge.

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Phragmites australis is the topic of a game practiced by teachers prior to the field trip where 947 4th Graders played it.

Download the complete report and play the game, Wetland Wonders. Alien Attack: Weeds in our Wetlands.


RECAP: Step Four. Planning a training program for specific audiences and geographic sites is as easy as having a motivated student, teacher, individual, or land manager. Building partnerships from existing local resources takes a little coordination. You will find some resources in Step Four that may help you to consider funding sources, write grant proposals, and support your workshops and service learning events.


You can advance by clicking Step Three.


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Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia