EcoTime 2.0 - Jeffers Foundation

We are proud to introduce EcoTime 2.0, which focuses on the three dimensions of science instruction emphasized in the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Science:
Science & Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

EcoTime 2.0 Listed by Theme

Supporting documents are included with * Lessons

Greeting

Activity

Interdisciplinary

Animal Adaptations

Adaptation Match*

Observing Animal Adaptations

Adaptation Upgrade

Animals

Animal Ball Toss

Vertebrates: Common Traits Greeting*

What Are You Wearing?*

What Animal Am I?

Join the Herd*

Would You Rather?*

Know Your Animals

Know Your Vertebrates

Animal Parts Game

Astronomy

Constellation Match*

Good Morning Sun, My Favorite Star

Moon Puzzle*

Rotate, Rotate, Revolve

Night Sky Map*

Is it Warm? Is it Cool?

Moon Phase Line Up*

Rotate and Revolve: Earth's Movements*

Stories From the Stars*

The Sun's Energy Makes Me Move

News Flash: Eclipse Coming Soon

Length of Daylight

Biomimicry

Fascinating Fasteners

Nature Inspired Inventions*

Make it from Nature

Birds

Beak Adaptations*

Good Morning, Tweetie*

I'm Thinking of a Bird Game

Tweeting Tallies

Create a Bird

Charting Chirps

Earth Spheres

Spheres of the Earth Greeting

Observing Four Spheres

Spheres of the Earth Model

Ecology

Eat Up the Food Chain

Good Morning, Ecosystem

Hello Predator, Hello Prey*

Weave a Food Web*

Building an Ecosystem

Predator - Prey Freeze Tag

Food Web Model

Identifying Parts of an Ecosystem

Predator - Prey Narrative

Engineering

Good Morning, Engineer

Engineering Step by Step

Rock Habitat Engineers

Geology

Good Morning, Rock

Rock Property Sort

Building a Rock Tower

Habitat

Habitat Match*

Shelter Greeting

Habitat Connection

Squirrel in a Tree

Comparing Habitats

Everyone Needs Shelter

Life Cycles

Life Cycle Greeting*

Insect Scavenger Hunt*

Insect Life Cycle Model

Mammals

Where's My Baby?*

Whose Track is That?*

Guess the Mammal

Walk this Way*

Draw a Mammal

Comparing Mammal Movements

Mapping

North, South, East or West, My Classroom Friends Are the Best

Never Eat Soggy Waffles

Direction Graph Drawing

Migration

Honk, Twitter, Splash: What's Migrating?*

Migration Racin'*

What's Your Story?

Observation

Eye Spy

Good Morning, Nature

Sound Wave Greeting

Observation Optics

Collect and Sort Nature Items

Sensory Listening Walk

What Do You See?

Nature Math

Nature Band

Phenology

Match the Season Puzzle

Seasonal Events

Birthday Seasons

Plants

Great Growing Greeting*

Matching Leaves*

Parts of a Tree

Grow Plant, Grow

Tree-mendous Schoolyard Survey*

Branch Puzzles

Great Growing Graph

Create a Leaflet

Tree Drawing

Snow

Snowfall Greeting*

How Much Water is in the Snow?

Snow Poem*

Stewardship

Boozhoo*

Conservation Greeting

Reuse Greeting

Designing Items from Natural Materials

Reduce with Juice

Where Does Our Garbage Go?

Native American Ingenuity

Conservation Practices at School

Reuse Trash/Upcycle

Water Cycle

Hello Precipitation

The Water Cycle Dance

Water Droplet Story

Weather

Good Morning, Cirrus

Hello Sunshine

Wonderful Weather Vocabulary*

Weather Watchers*

Tornado

Weather Data Collecting*

Cloud Art

Nature Weather Report

Fantastic Forecasters

Weathering/Erosion

Soil Savers Greeting*

Weathering Walk

Schoolyard Solutions

Contributing Writers and Editors:

Linda Anderson
David Grack
Jill Kufrin
Ed Pembleton
Sil Pembleton
Polly Saatzer

Graphics Design for Front Cover and Additional Resources:

Galen Erickson
David Grack

Administration and Online Design:

Suzanne Fuluvaka

Acknowledgments:

Current Jeffers Board of Directors, Cara Rieckenberg, Prior Lake-Savage Teachers & Administrators who developed ecotime

Dedication:

Paul Oberg (1931-2021)

Former Jeffers CEO and champion of education programs and resources that support outdoor learning

In 2010, Jeffers Foundation, working with teachers from the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District, produced ecotime, curricula to build a culture of science and the environment in the classroom while addressing academic standards. The lessons were used by teachers all across Minnesota.

In 2021, Jeffers Foundation updated ecotime, and is proud to introduce EcoTime 2.0, which continues a Jeffers Foundation 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:

A themed-lesson format includes three types of lessons: Greeting, Science Activity & Interdisciplinary Lesson
Greetings (blue) build community and engage students in practices that develop an understanding of core ideas.

Science Activities (yellow) promote investigation, analysis, and interpretation of data related to core ideas.

Interdisciplinary Lessons (green) extend science instruction to include student research, designing solutions to engineering challenges, producing reports, building models and more.
Lessons enhance learning and engagement by connecting science to language arts, math, art, and engineering.

In addition to focusing on 3-dimensional teaching, EcoTime 2.0 is designed to encourage outdoor learning while incorporating the use of science journals.

Each lesson can stand on its own. But a three-lesson set works to build student understanding of science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas in context with the real-world…the natural world.

We are proud to introduce EcoTime 2.0, which focuses on the three dimensions of science instruction emphasized in the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Science: Science & Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.