ODNR Division of Wildlife - Wild Resources - Educator Resources

Science and Civics--Sustaining Wildlife

Kids working in woodsScience and Civics is a new high school curriculum from Project WILD.  Brought to Ohio in 2003, hundreds of Ohio high school teachers have learned how to integrate service learning into their science and social studies courses through local habitat improvement projects.  Science and Civics is a program designed to involve 9-12 grade students in an environmental action project to benefit the local wildlife and community.

The Science and Civics guide is designed around the same framework as Project WILD, but it is designed to involve young people in decisions affecting people, wildlife, and the habitat they share in their community.  This curriculum can help students and teachers effectively meet state science and social studies standards.  Activity correlations can be found online on the ODNR-Education Resources page.  Science and Civics also helps schools meet state and school district guidelines and/or requirements for service learning. 

Community service projects can be based on an identified need for planting trees in a local park, on a local water quality issue that can affect migratory waterfowl, a local land use issue, or any problem or issue that can affect the balance of the quality of life for local wildlife and humans.

The guide is designed for the high school science and social studies classes to work together and is broken into four sections:

  • Science & Civics: Sustaining WildlifeAwareness: alerts science and social studies students to the effects humans have on local habitat quality and quantity;
  • Participatory Democracy: develops principles related to government structure and uses the Endangered Species Act as a framework for how different factors affect wildlife laws and legistlation. This section is appropriate for both government and civics units of social studies courses;
  • Habitat Exploration: studies the biological parameters of a student-selected site and is appropriate for ecology and environmental science units of science courses;
  • Taking Action: guides both social studies and science classes through the design, implementation and communication of their community service project.

Kids seining streamScience and Civics activity guides are available to educators free of charge only by attending a workshop.  Workshops are designed to explain the philosophy of Science and Civics and to allow educators to experience some of the activities in the guide.  Any educators, formal and non-formal, are invited to attend these workshops.  For a list of upcoming workshops in your area, check out our Project WILD Workshops page.  For more information about Science and Civics--Sustaining Wildlife, contact the Wildlife Education Coordinator at 1-800-WILDLIFE.