The federally endangered California condor remains a highly publicized symbol of wildlife conservation even as we continue to address challenges that threaten its long-term survival. Because anthropogenic threats are the primary factors limiting condor recovery, education and outreach have been identified by the California Condor Recovery Program as key priorities. In partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Santa Barbara Zoo worked with Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) to develop a California Condor-focused science curriculum – 27 enrichment lessons aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards at the third grade level, and organized by the EQuIP rubric.
The CondorKids curriculum links students to current conservation research, web-based live-streaming nest cameras, and interactive lesson plans designed to emphasize project-based and experiential learning. The 27 lessons cover biology, history, geography, and conservation, giving students a clear sense of the California Condor Recovery Program and the principles of wildlife management.
Results/Conclusions
FUSD administrators, as well as USFWS biologists and Santa Barbara Zoo curriculum writers visited the summer pilot classroom to observe the lesson plans in action and informally listen to students’ evaluation of the curriculum. Following the pilot, the writing and teaching teams met to evaluate student learning and lesson flow. Anecdotal teacher feedback from the summer pilot suggesting a significant increase in conservation awareness and thinking is supported by a variety of student deliverables across lessons. Feedback was used to adjust and revise activities within the curriculum.
Evaluation of the curriculum and student learning, through teacher trainings and the summer pilot respectively, support the ongoing development and revision of unique student deliverables, informal student assessments, and case study formal student assessments. Student questions, posed to teachers and USFWS staff, suggest appropriate understanding of current Condor Recovery Program procedures, such as microtrash clean ups. Students also showed strong engagement and knowledge retention in lesson-based role-playing activities. New inquiry-based engineering projects and case study evaluations will increase student data available for evaluation of learning, lending ongoing direction to curriculum adjustments.