An Habitat Learning Lab provides a wide variety of meaningful, hands-on, outdoor learning opportunities for your students. As you develop your Habitat Learning Lab, look for instances to integrate the outdoor learning stations and schoolyard wildlife habitat into your curriculum. Utilizing your Habitat Learning Lab as an educational tool helps ensure that the time and money you and your school invested in developing the Habitat Learning Lab was worthwhile. In addition, the more often teachers use the Habitat Learning Lab with their students, the greater the motivation will be to help maintain it from year to year. Below are suggestions about how to integrate the Habitat Learning Lab into your curriculum which will increase your faculty’s use of the Habitat Learning Lab as an education tool. Click on orange links to learn more.

> Enlist administrative support to provide time for teachers to examine their lesson plans and plan how they would like to include the Habitat Learning Lab in their curriculum.

> Survey your teachers each year to make sure that all teachers feel comfortable using the Habitat Learning Lab for hands-on conservation education activities, and address any concerns they may have with your planning committee, faculty, administrators, and Habitat Learning Lab (HLL) Consultant.

> Schedule an in-service teacher training workshop with your HLL Consultant to learn how to use your Habitat Learning Lab successfully and efficiently to meet academic standards.

> Attend Habitat Learning Lab and conservation education workshops with fellow teachers. (Visit the Alabama Wildlife Federation website for educator workshop dates and locations.)

> Review the Alabama Department of Education’s Course of Study Objectives and identify which objective(s) you would like to teach using a hands-on activity in the Habitat Learning Lab.

> Identify which of the outdoor learning stations you would like to utilize with each of the activities.

> Inventory any educational resources that your school may already have available before you invest in additional materials and curricula. (Use the Habitat Learning Lab Educational Resources checklist in the HLL Planning Guide & Checklists section of AWF’s website.)

> Create activity kits by compiling educational resources and materials that can be used in conjunction with specific Habitat Learning Lab learning stations or specific activities and storing these resources in plastic storage bins or backpacks. (Review the Habitat Learning Lab Activity Kit ideas in the HLL Activities & Lesson Plans section of AWF’s website.)

> Include a materials list in each activity kit so that teachers can note when new materials need to be added to the activity kit, and establish a refurbishing system to keep the kits stocked.

> Develop at least one Habitat Learning Lab Activity Kit per grade level or per discipline that can be used in conjunction with your outdoor learning stations so that all teachers and students will have the opportunity to use them.

> Keep your educational resources, materials, tools and activity kits in one or two central locations such as the media center, science lab, or tool shed in the Habitat Learning Lab where all teachers can easily access the materials/tools.

> Ensure accessibility and educational opportunities to all students, including those with physical disabilities, mental or emotional challenges, or ESL (English as a second language), as you develop learning stations. (Order a copy of the National Wildlife Federation’s Access Nature activity guide from their website.)

> Consider the size of the class(es) that will be utilizing the learning station and the number of students who will be participating in the activity at one time so that you can limit “downtime.” For instance, if an entire class will be participating in a gardening activity at one time, consider creating a four foot by six foot raised bed garden and dividing it into twenty-four (24) 1-foot squares so that each child will have her/his own “square foot garden.” Then allow the children to work in their individual gardens in 3 or 4 shifts with 6 to 8 students around the raised bed at a time.

> Contact your local nature center, botanical gardens, conservation organization, or environmental educator to arrange for a demonstration of conservation education activities in your Habitat Learning Lab. If possible, have the visiting educator provide copies of their materials for teachers to reference. (See the list of Community Organizations and Resources under the HLL Grants, Funding & Support section of AWF’s website.)

> Recruit parents to share their outdoor expertise (such as birding, gardening, or hunting) with students, and to help chaperone students during activities in the Habitat Learning Lab.

Questions? Contact April Waltz, Habitat Learning Lab Program Coordinator, at aprilwaltz@alabamawildlife.org.