Resources for Prairie Curriculum Development

Field trips to prairies provide a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about the natural world and how humans have used science to understand, manipulate, destroy, and rebuild prairies. Here you will find some web sites and and information on prairies that may be useful for teachers developing, adopting, or adapting curriculum or classroom activities.

Curriculum Development | Seed and Plant Sources | Books in USF Library

Some Ideas for Curriculum Development

• Prairies in the Prairie State by the Illinois State Museum: This is an excellent site with background information on many different areas. (http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/midewin/frames.html)
• A site emphasizing Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie that was produced by Openlands Project: It has a timeline for the prairie, classroom activities and a bibliography. The bibliography of books about the prairie is especially good for stories about the prairie before it was settled and plowed by Europeans. (http://www.openlands.org/midewin/)
• Another good site for background information on prairies by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources: (http://dnr.state.il.us/conservation/naturalheritage/florafauna/document.htm)
• Another IDNR site that has information about Prairie Watch: Prairie Watch uses volunteers to collect data about prairies for scientific monitoring. EcoWatch also has forest and stream teams. (http://dnr.state.il.us/OREP/INRIN/ECOWATCH/PrairieWatch/index.htm)
• Three sources for prairie curriculums: (http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/prairie/htmls/re_curriculum.html)
• A prairie curriculum developed at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa. (http://www.nps.gov/heho/edu_prairie.htm)
• Listening to the Prairie resources for K-12 from the Smithsonian
• Another group of activities for the prairie from the University of Minnesota: (http://www1.umn.edu/bellmuse/mnideals/prairie/)
• Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (http://www.fs.fed.us/mntp)

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Seed and Plant Sources for Native Wetlands and Prairies

Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries
17921 Smith Road, Brodhead, WI 53520
Phone (608) 897-8641

Genesis Nursery
Tampico, IL
(815) 438-2220

Spence Restoration Nursery
Muncie, IN
(765) 286-7154

County Road Greenhouse
Rochelle, IL
(815) 384-3311

The Natural Garden
St. Charles, IL
(630) 584-0150 or (630) 584-0595

Ion Exchange
Harpers Ferry, IA
(800) 291-2143 or (319) 535-7231

J.F. New Native Plant Nursery
Walkerton, IN
(219) 586-3400 or (219) 586-2412

Prairie Moon Nursery (http://www.prairiemoonnursery.com/index.html)

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Some interesting books about prairies available at the USF Library:

The Tallgrass restoration handbook: for prairies, savannas, and woodlands. edited by Stephen Packard and Cornelia F. Mutel ; foreword by William R. Jordan III. Washington, D.C. : Island Press, c1997.

Restoration of endangered species: conceptual issues, planning, and implementation. edited by Marlin L. Bowles and Christopher J. Whelan. Cambridge [England] ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Prairie conservation: preserving North America's most endangered ecosystem. edited by Fred B. Samson and Fritz L. Knopf ; foreword by E. Benjamin Nelson. Washington, D.C. : Island Press, 1996.

Medicinal wild plants of the prairie: an ethnobotanical guide / Kelly Kindscher; drawings by William S. Whitney. Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, c1992.