“Linking water,
science, and people”
Support hands-on science education in the Sierra Nevada
Science Education for Home-School Students
Our standards-based program offers hands-on scientific investigation of the Deer Creek
watershed and all of the wildlife that makes its home there. Deer Creek's diverse habitat
provides the opportunity for a multi-disciplinary, hands-on science curriculum that includes biology,
earth science, and chemistry.
All our classes offer unique learning opportunities:
- Learn from real scientists.
Staff scientist teach the curriculum and work directly with students.
- Work in the laboratory.
Students work in the Sierra Streams chemical and biological labs doing
microscope work, insect identification, and chemical analysis.
- Do hands-on monitoring and restoration.
Students participate in active water-quality monitoring and
restoration projects in the Deer Creek watershed.
Science is critically important in the education of students.
The study of the important issues facing us—such as water resources and quality,
environmental preservation and restoration, and climate change—may enable today's students
to address some of these issues in the future. However, students who are in homeschool programs
have few opportunities to access labs, scientific equipment, and well-trained teachers.
Our Homeschool Science program is designed to address this need. Sierra Streams' educators and scientists
provide standards-based instruction in the physical and life sciences in our
classroom and lab at the Carriage House and in the outdoor "classroom" of Deer Creek. Students
are more engaged in this kind of learning than are students in traditional classrooms
because everything is hands-on, real, and relevant.
Students examining insects from Deer Creek.
Sierra Streams Institute is offering two courses in the first half of 2012. Both are specifically
designed for homeschool students. Students use contemporary scientific research
tools and techniques to collect and analyze scientific data. Guided by Sierra Streams
Institute's scientists and educators, students question, investigate, explore
and discover.
For both classes, students meet at Sierra Streams Institute at 9 AM prepared to spend
part of each class period in the lab and classroom and part outdoors on the banks of Deer
Creek. Students work together with the Institute's scientists on current
projects.
- Watershed-based Science, grades 3 - 5
Five weeks beginning the week of February 7
Tuesdays 9 to 1 pm OR Thursdays 9 to 1 pm
- Watershed-based Science, grades 6 - 8
Ten weeks beginning the week of March 26
Mondays 9 to 1 pm OR Thursdays 9 to 1 pm
For more information about the homeschool science education program, email Education Coordinator
Kelly Hickman at kelly[at]sierrastreamsinstitute.org or call (530) 265-6090 ext. 201.
To register your child (or children) for one of the classes,
click here.
Flier for Winter 2012 classes.
Click the image for the full-sized version.
To see the full-sized flier for the
Spring 2012 classes,
click here.
- Curriculum outline:
Fall 2011,
Living Systems. Describes the topics covered in the Fall, 2011, class
for homeschool students grades 6 to 9.
- Class brochure:
Science Enrichment Class. Describes the half-day science enrichment class
Fish, Frogs, and Forests offered on November 16, 2011
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