UW’s Global Vegetation Project Develops Online Educational Materials

The Global Vegetation Project, started in 2020 by the University of Wyoming Biodiversity Institute, recently published K-12 educational materials on its website. According to a release from the UW, the Global Vegetation Project was developed to fill a need for more resources to teach vegetation ecology online and the vision for the project is to curate a global database of open access vegetation photos that can be used by educators around the world. The educational materials that were designed are grounded in phenomena-based learning, in which students are presented with a natural, observable phenomenon and are tasked with explaining why it occurs. Through explaining a given phenomenon, students explore various scientific practices and topics. In each set of materials, the Global Vegetation Project serves to introduce or explain a phenomenon.

This approach is student-centered and guided by student inquiry, says Bisk, who is pursuing a degree in natural science education and environment and natural resources. While these materials outline a general progression for an educator to follow, the materials encourage educators to allow students to drive the direction of their learning. The materials are presented so that they can be adapted to any educator’s particular teaching style and classroom. For more information about the Global Vegetation Project, go to the website at www.gveg.wyobiodiversity.org; Facebook at www.facebook.com/GlobalVegProj/; Twitter at www.twitter.com/GlobalVegProj; and Instagram at www.instagram.com/globalvegproj/.