Prairie Connections

Prairie Connections is a series of electronic field trips recorded in September of 1998 from the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge and to the banks of the Raccoon River in Iowa. Copies of the Prairie Connections programs are available to Iowa teachers from each of the fifteen Area Education Agencies in the state. Iowa Public Television also includes the Prairie Connections series periodically in its educational broadcast schedule. Recording and duplication of the Prairie Connections series is allowed.

The Prairie Connections series helps students understand Iowa's tall grass prairies and appreciate how human activity has changed them. Students learn what the Iowa landscape looked like to the first settlers, how to analyze wildlife populations in relation to human interventions and become involved in their own prairie conservation and reconstruction programs.

Each of the three 60-minute programs was developed for the following grade levels:

Program #1 - Grades 5-6
Program #2 - Grades 7-8
Program #3 - Grades 9-12

Teacher Guide

The teacher guide for the Prairie Connections series contains activities for three different grade levels (5-6, 7-8, 9-12), each related to specified national content standards in science and geography. Each section contains extension activities and model project descriptions. Teachers and students can refer to extensive bibliographical and resource listings to enhance the learning outcomes.

Classroom Activities are divided into grade levels and include:

Grades 5-6 - Local history detectives; 2045 Time Capsule; and successful elementary action project ideas.

Grades 7-8 - Wildlife Detective - a Timeline to the Past; Land and People Connections; successful middle school action project ideas.

Grades 9-12 - Prairie Search; Prairie Reconstruction Adoption; successful high school action project ideas.

The guide is divided into seven sections. Each is available as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Click on each section to download and print. Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in must be installed on the computer to read and print the files. Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free plug-in available from the Adobe Web site.

Part One: Title page, table of contents, introduction and overview. 12 pages.

Part Two: National Content Standards (science, history, geography). 9 pages.

Part Three: 5th & 6th grade activities and projects.. 18 pages.

Part Four: 7th & 8th grade activities and projects. 16 pages.

Part Five: 9th - 12th grade activities and projects. 11 pages.

Part Six: Bibliography.11 pages.

Part Seven: Resources.18 pages.