Habitat Learning Lab Program: Step 2

After you have informed key people about your Habitat Lab plans, you need to organize your Habitat Lab Team (planning committee) who will help you develop, manage, and sustain the outdoor learning stations and educational signage in your Habitat Learning Lab (aka “Habitat Lab”) from year to year. Below are tips for organizing your Habitat Lab Team and for leading a productive and successful Habitat Lab Team. Click on the maroon links below to learn more.

STEP 2: ORGANIZE YOUR HABITAT LAB TEAM

Faculty Habitat Lab Team Members

After your AWF Habitat Lab Specialist conducts your faculty survey to get your faculty’s feedback about developing, using and maintaining a Habitat Learning Lab, she will provide you a list of faculty members who signed up to volunteer on the Habitat Lab Team. If you only have two or three teachers sign up to volunteer to serve on the Habitat Lab Team, then you should invite other teachers to join the team.

Your goal is to have one teacher from each grade level (or one rep from K-2 and one from 3-5) to ensure that the Habitat Lab’s outdoor learning stations meet the needs of all students and teachers regardless of grade level. The team members can then share details about the Habitat Lab with the other teachers in their grade to keep everyone involved and informed. In addition, if feasible, it is extremely helpful to include all of the STEM, earth, and life science teachers on your Habitat Lab Team. (Note: Try to avoid assigning teachers to the Habitat Lab Team if possible.)

Other Potential Habitat Lab Team Members

In addition to including faculty members on your Habitat Lab Team, you can also invite other members of your school community to serve on the team including the following:

School administrators, staff, and grounds personnel;
Students including 4-H, Junior Master Gardeners, Future Farmers of America, or other student club members;
PTA/PTO members, parent volunteers, or grandparents;
Your local Alabama Cooperative Extension Agent or a representative from your local natural resource agency personnel; and
Master Gardeners or Master Naturalists; and
City or county officials.

Planning Guides for your Habitat Lab Team Members

If possible, provide a Habitat Learning Lab Planning Guide for each of your Habitat Lab Team members to help them understand the process and responsibilities associated with managing a Habitat Learning Lab from year to year. When you enroll in the Alabama Wildlife Federation’s Habitat Learning Lab program, you will receive three free Habitat Learning Lab Planning Guides. Planning guides can be purchased through the Alabama Wildlife Federation Store (coming soon!).

Habitat Lab Team Tips

Start each school year off with a plan for your Habitat Lab!

Hold a Habitat Lab Team meeting the week before school officially starts to put together a plan for your Habitat Lab for the upcoming school year. Access the “Plan Your School Year” portals in your school’s Records Hub to discuss your “Priorities & Projects for the School Year” and your “Annual Maintenance Plan for this School Year.”
While you are in your school’s Records Hub, review and update your other Habitat Lab records including your Habitat Lab webpage and photos, your Habitat Lab team member names and contact info, and your Habitat Lab Usage & Impact Data.
Hold a Habitat Lab work day in early to mid-August to pull weeds and clean up the Habitat Lab. See the Work Day Planning Tips (PDF) for planning tips and project ideas.
Work with your Habitat Lab Ambassadors (students) to provide tours of the Habitat Lab during your school’s Open House in August.

Habitat Lab Team Tips

Your Habitat Lab Team should work together with each member taking on different tasks to develop, manage and sustain your school’s Habitat Learning Lab. See the Habitat Lab Team Tasks below.
Meet at least four times a year—twice in the fall and twice in the spring—even after certifying your Habitat Learning Lab.

Spread the workload by delegating specific tasks to teachers and volunteers who are not serving on the Habitat Lab Team.
The more people involved, then the more support the project will have, the more it will be used, and the longer it will be sustained.
Give volunteers very clear and limited tasks for a specific period of time.
Keep everyone informed! Provide monthly updates to your Habitat Team members, administrators, faculty and parents through the school newsletter, website, Facebook page, Instagram account, and other social media.

Habitat Lab Team Tasks

You may have more than one person sharing a particular task, or you may share these responsibilities evenly among the entire team.

Responsibilities include the following:

> Take notes and share the meeting notes with the whole team after the meeting.

> Maintain communication between the team members via email updates.

> Document progress with “before” and “after” photos, a scrapbook, and/or video journal.

> Maintain a Habitat Lab bulletin board in the school with photos of what plants are growing or blooming in the Habitat Lab and what wildlife is visiting the habitat to encourage teachers to use it as an “outdoor living laboratory” with their students.

> Research and write grant proposals for materials needed to create and use the outdoor learning stations, educational signage, and activity kits.

> Prepare a “wish list,” and ask parents and local businesses for monetary or in-kind donations.

> Work with the school bookkeeper to gather quotes and invoices, submit Purchase Order requests, collect receipts, and submit payment for items and services related to the Habitat Lab.

> Coordinate the Maintenance Plan including the Learning Station Adoption Program and work days in the Habitat Lab.

> Write thank-you notes for donations of time, materials, plants, or educational resources.

> Compile educational resources and activity kits that can be used by all of the teachers for Habitat Lab activities.

> Share local workshop and webinar opportunities and the AWF Habitat Lab Expo with your faculty.

Questions? Contact the AWF’s Habitat Lab Specialists.