YOUTH EDUCATION
Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful Youth Education Program is a Next Generation Science Standards-aligned environmental education series that includes three modules: Waste Warriors, Weed Warriors, and Watershed Warriors. KTMB also curates lessons for middle and high school classes and after-school green clubs.
LESSON DEVELOPMENTS
We have designed our Waste, Weeds, and Watershed Warriors lessons to meet NGSS and state health, science, and social studies standards. The standards that each grade-level lesson meets are listed below each lesson’s description in the section below. The Youth Education Program Manager and Youth Education AmeriCorps have also updated lessons to incorporate more critical thinking, group work, and interactive activities.
WASTE WARRIORS PROGRAM
Waste Warriors empowers students in grades K-5 to create less waste. Each lesson is differentiated by grade level and focuses on one of the “Environmental R’s”: reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond. Grade K-2 lessons are taught in one session; grade 3-5 lessons are taught in two sessions and include an optional service-learning extension to affect school-wide change. The module includes a supplemental dynamic video and is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
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1 hour -
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers kinders to create less waste by considering the importance of respect for our community and our environment and rethinking how litter affects both.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.K.1 Identify a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
Social Studies - SS.K.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address local, regional, and or global problems.
Social Studies - SS.K.16. Describe how people work to improve their communities.
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1 hour -
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 1st graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on reusing items and inventing new ways to repurpose old items.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.1.1 Describe a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social Studies - SS.1.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address community problems.
Social Studies - SS.1.18. Compare and contrast the different ways people work to improve the community.
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1 hour -
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 2nd graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on refusing single-use plastics and reducing the use of other forms of plastic.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.2.1 Explain a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - 2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties.
Social Studies - SS.2.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address local, regional, and/or national problems.
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Part 1 - 1 hour 30 minutes
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 3rd graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on repairing items and consciously choosing to rehome items they no longer need and embrace secondhand items.
Part 2 - 1 hour
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 3rd graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on repairing items and consciously choosing to rehome items they no longer need and embrace secondhand items. This lesson includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.3.1Compare a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.3.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, or global problems.
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Part 1 - 1 hour 30 minutes
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 4th graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on properly recycling household waste.
Part 2 - 1 hour
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 4th graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on properly recycling household waste. This lesson includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.4.1 Compare and contrast a variety of healthy practices and behaviors that maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - 4-ESS2-2. Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
Social studies - SS.4.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local or regional problems.
Visual Arts - VA:Cr1.4.1 Brainstorm multiple approaches to a creative art or design problem.
VA :Cr1.4.2 Collaboratively set goals and create artwork that is meaningful and has purpose to the makers.
VA:Re7.4.2 Analyze components in visual imagery that convey messages.
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Part 1 - 1 hour 30 minutes
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 5th graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on reducing green waste by purposefully allowing it to rot then using the soil, ie. composting.
Part 2 - 1 hour
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers 5th graders to create less waste by reducing, reusing, recycling, and beyond, with a special focus on reducing green waste by purposefully allowing it to rot then using the soil, ie. composting. This lesson includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.5.1 Examine the impact of a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - 5-PS1-3. Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.
Social studies - SS.5.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, and/or national problems.
Optional Extension for Service Learning (3rd-5th grade) 30 minutes -
KTMB is happy to lead a service learning project for your class, grade level, or school! During this one-on-one session, you and a KTMB educator will plan a service learning extension to follow-up Part 1 and Part 2 of your Waste Warriors lessons. Projects can include a litter clean-up, donation swap (3rd Grade), recycling initiative (4th Grade), composting initiative (5th Grade), or anything you and your students can dream up!
Please complete the lesson form below if you’re interested in booking a school-based program with KTMB. After this form is submitted, we will email you with scheduling details and instructions.
To maximize our time teaching and to minimize our time travelling, we ask that if there are multiple teachers interested in lessons, that one unit (weeds or waste or watershed) for an entire grade level be scheduled on one day (maximum 4 lessons k-2nd grade and 3 lessons 3rd-5th grade).
WATERSHED WARRIORS PROGRAM
Watershed Warriors empowers students in grades K-5 to preserve the Truckee River watershed. Each lesson is differentiated by grade level and focuses on either sharing water rights, protecting water from nonpoint source pollution, or conserving water amidst the aridification of the West. Grade 3-5 lessons include an optional service-learning extension to affect school-wide change. The module is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), features a supplemental dynamic video, and was developed by KTMB, Sierra Nevada Journeys, and Project WET.
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1 hour -
Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations. This lesson focuses on water conservation amidst the aridification of the West.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.K.1 Identify a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
Social Studies - SS.K.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address local, regional, and or global problems.
Social Studies - SS.K.16. Describe how people work to improve their communities.
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1 hour -
Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations. This lesson focuses on protecting water from nonpoint source pollution.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.1.1 Describe a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social Studies - SS.1.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address community problems.
Social Studies - SS.1.18. Compare and contrast the different ways people work to improve the community.
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1 hour -
This Waste Warriors lesson empowers Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations. This lesson focuses on sharing water rights.
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.1.1 Describe a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social Studies - SS.1.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address community problems.
Social Studies - SS.1.18. Compare and contrast the different ways people work to improve the community.
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Part 1 - 1 hour 30 minutes
Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations. This lesson focuses on water conservation amidst the aridification of the West and includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.3.1 Compare a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.3.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, or global problems.
Optional Extension for Service Learning (3rd-5th grade) 30 minutes -
KTMB is happy to lead a service learning project for your class, grade level, or school! During this one-on-one session, you and a KTMB educator will plan a service learning extension to follow-up Part 1 and Part 2 of your Waste Warriors lessons. Projects can include a litter clean-up, donation swap (3rd Grade), recycling initiative (4th Grade), composting initiative (5th Grade), or anything you and your students can dream up!
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1 hour 30 minutes
Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations. This lesson focuses on protecting water from nonpoint source pollution and includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.4.1 Compare and contrast a variety of healthy practices and behaviors that maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - 4-ESS2-2. Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
Social studies - SS.4.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local or regional problems.
Visual Arts - VA:Re7.4.2 Analyze components in visual imagery that convey messages.
Optional Extension for Service Learning (3rd-5th grade) 30 minutes -
KTMB is happy to lead a service learning project for your class, grade level, or school! During this one-on-one session, you and a KTMB educator will plan a service learning extension to follow-up Part 1 and Part 2 of your Waste Warriors lessons. Projects can include a litter clean-up, donation swap (3rd Grade), recycling initiative (4th Grade), composting initiative (5th Grade), or anything you and your students can dream up!
-
1 hour 30 minutes -
Watershed Warriors introduces students to the myriad of challenges facing the Truckee River watershed and inspires them to create solutions to preserve the river for future generations.
This lesson focuses on sharing water rights and includes an optional extension for service learning (scheduled separately).
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.5.1 Examine the impact of a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.5.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, and/or national problems.
Optional Extension for Service Learning (3rd-5th grade) 30 minutes -
KTMB is happy to lead a service learning project for your class, grade level, or school! During this one-on-one session, you and a KTMB educator will plan a service learning extension to follow-up Part 1 and Part 2 of your Waste Warriors lessons. Projects can include a litter clean-up, donation swap (3rd Grade), recycling initiative (4th Grade), composting initiative (5th Grade), or anything you and your students can dream up!
Please complete the lesson form below if you’re interested in booking a school-based program with KTMB. After this form is submitted, we will email you with scheduling details and instructions.
To maximize our time teaching and to minimize our time travelling, we ask that if there are multiple teachers interested in lessons, that one unit (weeds or waste or watershed) for an entire grade level be scheduled on one day (maximum 4 lessons k-2nd grade and 3 lessons 3rd-5th grade).
WEED WARRIORS PROGRAM
Weed Warriors introduces students in grades K-2 and 3-5 to the destructive environmental consequences of invasive and noxious weeds, as well as prompts them to consider how they can revitalize our native ecosystems by stopping their spread. KTMB, Nevada Department of Agriculture, and Sierra Nevada Journeys developed the module and supplemental video. The lessons are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
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1 hour -
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.K.1 Identify a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Science - K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment.
Social Studies - SS.K.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address local, regional, and or global problems.
Social Studies - SS.K.16. Describe how people work to improve their communities.
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1 hour -
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.1.1 Describe a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social Studies - SS.1.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address community problems.
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1 hour -
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.2.1 Explain a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social Studies - SS.2.7. With prompting and support, list and discuss group or individual actions to help address local, regional, and/or national problems.
Science - LS2.A: Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Plants depend on water and light to grow. (2-LS2-1)
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Part 1 - 1 hour 30 minutes
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.3.1Compare a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.3.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, or global problems.
Science - 3-LS4-4. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.
3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
3-LS4-2. Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
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1 hour 30 minutes
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.4.1 Compare and contrast a variety of healthy practices and behaviors that maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.4.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local or regional problems.
Science - 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
LS1.A: Structure and Function - Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. (4-LS1-1)
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1 hour 30 minutes -
Standards met:
Health - 1.PCE.5.1 Examine the impact of a variety of healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal, community, and environmental health.
Social studies - SS.5.9. List and discuss group or individual action to help address local, regional, and/or national problems.
Science - 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
Please complete the lesson form below if you’re interested in booking a school-based program with KTMB. After this form is submitted, we will email you with scheduling details and instructions.
To maximize our time teaching and to minimize our time travelling, we ask that if there are multiple teachers interested in lessons, that one unit (weeds or waste or watershed) for an entire grade level be scheduled on one day (maximum 4 lessons k-2nd grade and 3 lessons 3rd-5th grade).
MIDDLE AND
HIGH SCHOOL
EDUCATION
KTMB is excited to be involved with middle and high schoolers who want to be the change in their community. We believe that secondary students have a very powerful voice in transforming and leading innovative sustainability efforts for all Washoe County schools. We have the tools and resources to assist in moving forward with your projects and interests.
KTMB can support your school by providing:
In-classroom Warriors lessons tailored to the academic level of secondary students.
Opportunities for classrooms and green clubs alike to collaborate on service-learning projects.
Tips on how to establish, organize, and run a green club.
Green club meeting agendas and project ideas.
Opportunities for community involvement and leadership roles.
Connections with other environmental education groups.
For additional information or to book a lesson for Middle or High School classes, please email Scout Kirby, KTMB’s Youth Education Manager, at scout@ktmb.org.