SEEDS
Students Engaging in Environmental Design & Solutions is an action-based program series aligned with Pennsylvania's STEELS Environmental Literacy & Sustainability Standard
Program Overview
Looking for an engaging way to bring Pennsylvania’s new STEELS Environmental Literacy & Sustainability (ELS) standards to life? Riverbend’s SEEDS Series empowers students through hands-on, nature-based STEM learning. Using the Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) framework, students investigate real local environmental phenomena and issues, and take meaningful action in their schoolyard or community.
Designed for grades 3–5 (and scalable for K through 8), the series offers two focus tracks—Biodiversity or Natural Resource Use — that explore the central driving question:
How do our choices at school affect living things and Earth’s resources—and what can we do to help?
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Teachers can decide which track works for their curriculum or they can include their students in that decision.
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This program is aligned with Pennsylvania’s STEELS Environmental Literacy & Sustainability (ELS) standards and follows the Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) framework.
Program Components
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1-hour virtual teacher Professional Development session
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Three classroomv visits (one pre–field experience, two post)
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A field experience at Riverbend Environmental Education Center or a partner site
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A student-driven action project
​Riverbend educators lead all sessions and support teachers throughout the action project process.
Biodiversity (Schoolyard Rangers)
Helping living things in the schoolyard
Students explore the variety of life in their schoolyard and how biodiversity supports ecosystem health. Through a schoolyard “bioblitz,” students collect data on organisms and habitats, then compare their findings to data gathered at a protected natural area during a field experience.
Guiding questions include:
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What does biodiversity tell us about how well living things can survive here?
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What patterns do we see in the organisms around us?
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How do habitat characteristics influence biodiversity?
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How does our schoolyard compare to a site designed to protect nature?
Choose a Focus Track
Natural Resource Use (Sustainability Engineers)
Using earth’s resources wisely
Students investigate how living things—including humans—use natural resources to meet their needs. They examine resource use at school (such as energy or water), explore how organisms are adapted to their habitats on the field trip, and consider how resource use affects local ecosystems.
Guiding questions include:
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How are resources used at our school?
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Are these resources used in ways that allow living things to thrive?
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How do organisms obtain what they need to survive?
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How does our resource use impact habitats and living things?
From Investigation to Action
After classroom investigations and the field experience, students analyze their data and revisit the driving question to choose a challenge area and design a student-driven action project, with guidance and low- or no-cost project ideas provided by Riverbend. Action projects are designed to fit within the program timeline, with optional opportunities for extension.
Program Cost
For up to 50 students (approximately two classes):
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Professional Development = $150
3 classroom visits = $1,050
Field trip = $800
TOTAL = $2,000+
Note: Bus transportation is not included in this estimate.
Riverbend will provide ideas for free and low cost action projects. Schools may opt to set aside funds to allow for larger projects.
We look forward to working with you and your students!
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead, Philadelphia, PA
For more information
Suzanne Safran
Director of Education
ssafran@riverbendeec.org
610.527.5234 EXT. 112
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