School Partnerships
Plaster Creek Stewards partners with local K-12 schools to implement place-based learning through classroom activities, field trips, and student-led restoration projects.
Place-based education
Plaster Creek Stewards believes in the importance of empowering youth to explore and make a difference in our natural world. We are proud to come alongside K-12 educators throughout the watershed to teach and discover with their students.
We support teachers in developing hands-on environmental lesson plans and leading classes in exploring their immediate environment. We teach your students to observe their communities and ask questions, leading to greater understanding and ability to influence the world around them.
Classroom activities
In addition to exploring our space, Plaster Creek Stewards helps your students understand the natural systems around them. Regardless of grade level, we try to make watershed learning accessible and relevant to everyone. Below are just a few of the activities we can lead with your class.
In this activity, students use their artistic skills to create their own watershed map. In doing this, they will learn about how communities are connected by water and the effects -- both good and bad -- we can have on our watershed.
This activity teaches students to use their senses to identify specific Michigan native plants. They will learn specific scientific techniques like dichotomy and become able to recognize a few native plants that appear around their community.
This mystery game has students work as detectives working together to discover who polluted the Plaster Creek. Together, we go through the history of the watershed, meeting different suspects that lived and worked near Plaster Creek. (Materials to come)
Field trips
There is so much more to see outside the neighborhood! Take your students on a tour of the broader space they live in. Plaster Creek Stewards provides tours, visits to our greenhouse, and opportunities to participate in our work. Here are some examples of field trips that we offer.
See the entire Plaster Creek Watershed, from its headwaters in Dutton, Michigan to where it joins the Grand River. Observe the ways we live in harm and harmony with our water, and the many different communities that call this watershed home.
Stop by our greenhouse to see how we propagate native plants. Learn about how we collect and prepare the seeds, as well as how we grow and prepare them for our restoration projects. Participate by helping us transplant native plants
Get an idea of the work we do by visiting our different restoration projects. See how nature-based solutions help our watershed and environment, and get your hands dirty by helping us install native plants and trees.
Restoration projects
Students can put their learning into practice by implementing restoration projects at their schools. Plaster Creek Stewards helps students design and plant rain gardens, native landscapes, and other nature-based solutions. We can support your class by helping to plan and budget your project, providing plants, lending tools, and even planting alongside you. Here are some examples of class projects we have partnered with:
Dutton Christian Elementary researches about and plants native trees.
Grand Rapids Christian School - Evergreen plants a native garden by their school.
Resources
Check out these additional resources for teachers, provided by PCS and other watershed educators.
Teach FASTly provides classroom activities and course plans that blend faith and science.
Growing Native Plants in the Classroom will guide you through the steps of collecting native seeds, propagation, growth, transplanting, and finally planting your native plants.
The Potomac Highlands Watershed School provides helpful watershed-related activities and educational resources for high, middle, and elementary school educators.
Find My Watershed is a GIS map tool and a fun way for students to explore how water moves throughout your community
Partner with us!
Connect with us at PlasterCreekStewards@calvin.edu to talk about partnership opportunities!