Restoration Ecology for Young Stewards (REYS)
K-12 Ecology Education
REYS curriculum now available for download! All lessons developed by Cara Ianni at the Stilly-Snohomish Task Force, except where noted on the lesson plans. Below are the lessons, in the suggested order, and scroll down for more for information about REYS!
Concept Mapping
Watersheds (lesson credit: Snohomish County Surface Water Management)
Watershed Student Worksheet
Watershed Tour (field trip)
Watershed Tour Worksheet
Salmon (lesson credit: Snohomish County Surface Water Management)
Salmon Information
Salmon Pictures by Species
Salmon Lesson Student Worksheet
Plants as a System
Plants as a System Worksheet
How do trees affect erosion? A controlled investigation
Student worksheet for erosion lesson
Native Plants (lesson credit: Snohomish County Surface Water Management)
Native Plants Student Worksheet
Native Plants Student Guidebook
Exploring testable questions and choosing a research topic
Exploring testable questions and choosing a research topic – example worksheet (answer key)
Exploring testable questions and choosing a research topic - student worksheet
Designing Your Experiment (adapted from Cornell University's Watershed Dynamics Curriculum)
Designing Your Experiment Student Worksheet (elementary)
Designing Your Experiment Student Worksheet (secondary)
Designing Your Experiment Peer Review Form (adapted from Cornell University's Watershed Dynamics Curriculum)
Sorting it Out: Using and Creating Keys
Key to Life in a River (from University of Wisconsin-Extension)
Sorting it Out: Using and Creating Keys - Student Worksheet for macroinvertebrates
Sorting it Out: Using and Creating Keys - Student Worksheet for plants
Sorting it Out: Using and Creating Keys - Example Student Work for plants
Student-designed interpretive signs – lesson plan
Student-designed interpretive signs - examples
Get ready, because the kids in your community are poised to make a real difference for people and salmon. Yes, during this school year, the Task Force will support students from Arlington, Marysville, and Snohomish in their efforts to implement a salmon-stream restoration project of their own design!
The Task Force was one of just three organizations awarded funding though the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Natural Science, Wildlife and Environmental Education Grant Program. The money will go to support our year-long school-based education program, which now has the nifty name of the Restoration Education for Young Stewards, or REYS, program.
The REYS curriculum consists of a series of 8 lessons, some in the classroom and some out in the field. Students will begin by collecting observational
data and performing simple experiments, building the knowledge and skills necessary to plan an authentic riparian restoration project. In the first three
lessons, they learn about salmon life-history and habitat requirements, tour their school’s watershed, and test how trees affect soil erosion
(see picture). Then, students progress to designing and conducting their own controlled scientific investigations in ecology. Not only will they plan and
implement a stream restoration project, their work will also include an experimental component, helping them to better understand
scientific processes. In the final two lessons, students communicate their learning by creating interpretive signs for their restoration site, plus
improve analytical skills by using and creating keys for local plants and bugs.
Through the REYS program, we expect students to develop the critical thinking skills required of an engaged and productive citizenry. And best of all, as both the kids and the trees they planted grow taller, students can return to their restoration to see their plan of cleaner water, better habitat and erosion control, and greener spaces come to fruition.
(1) Bilby et al., 2003, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 132:733-745.
(2) Wipfli et al., 1998, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 55:1503-1511.
(3) Wipfli et al., 2003, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 132:371-381.