Project Description

Winner of the National Association for Interpretation’s 2012 Media Award, Curriculum Category

Marie planned, researched, and wrote Our Mississippi: Educational Activities about the Upper Mississippi River for the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Great Rivers Museum in collaboration with graphic designers and project manager at Formations, Inc. An ambitious, comprehensive, 350-­page curriculum guide, its goal was to provide teachers with a mix of classroom, self-directed, and collaborative lessons and activities about the Upper Mississippi River that meet a wide range of national learning standards. This guidebook is a result of several different programs and partnerships that included other federal agencies, five states, and a wide variety of environmental, conservation, navigation, and industry groups to strike that ever-crucial balance of human and wildlife interests.

The curriculum guide follows a multidisciplinary approach, weaving science, technology, and math with social science, language, and arts collaboratively to address complex, real-life resource management issues and multiple uses of the river. The lessons and activities chosen for the guidebook focus on concepts that can be investigated or demonstrated. Designed for grades 5 and 6, each unit includes activities or extension ideas for upper and lower grades as well.

You can also download the curriculum guide at Rivers Project Office’s Education page.