In 2010, Jeffers Foundation, working with teachers from the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District, produced ecotime, a curriculum to build a culture of science and the environment in the classroom while addressing academic standards. Teachers across Minnesota used the lessons.
In 2021, Jeffers Foundation updated ecotime, and is proud to introduce EcoTime 2.0, which continues the Foundation’s commitment to providing high-quality instructional materials.
The 120 lessons focus on three dimensions of science instruction emphasized in the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Science: Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.
Features of EcoTime 2.0:
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A themed-lesson format includes three types of lessons: Greeting, Science Activity & Interdisciplinary Lesson.
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Greetings build community and engage students in practices that develop an understanding of core ideas.
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Science Activities promote investigation, analysis, and interpretation of data related to core ideas.
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Interdisciplinary Lessons extend science instruction to include student research, designing solutions to engineering challenges, producing reports, building models, and more.
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Lessons enhance learning and engagement by connecting science to language arts, math, art, and engineering.
Each lesson can stand on its own. But every three-lesson set is designed to build student understanding of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas in context with the real-world…the natural world.