Institute helps teachers incorporate native landscaping in classroom

Teachers can learn how to incorporate native landscaping into their classrooms at the DuPage County Forest Preserve District's Earth Partnership for Schools summer institute from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 21-25 and Nov. 15 at Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center, Spring Road, west of York Road, in Oak Brook.

Teachers will learn how to create native landscapes at their schools, infuse hands-on science into their curricula, and foster leadership and responsibility among their students.

They'll discuss plant identification, ecosystems and habitats, data collection, garden design, and math, reading and science in the classroom, and return to their schools with resources to meet next generation science standards.

The institute costs $285 per person. Full-tuition scholarships are available. Successful participants also will receive complimentary graduate degree credit funded through a grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum.

Registration materials are online at www.dupageforest.org under Things to Do and Teachers and Scouts.

For more information, call (630) 933-7208.

"For more than 30 years, Earth Partnerships for Schools institutes throughout the Midwest have trained teachers to incorporate ecology into their classrooms, and we're happy to lend our expertise to those efforts here in DuPage County," said David Guritz, director of the district's Office of Education.

A team of teachers from Johnson Elementary School in Warrenville, part of Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, plan to join this year's institute. They'll focus on native habitats along rivers and streams to support a schoolwide effort to help restore Ferry Creek, which passes through the school's grounds and the adjoining Warrenville Park District's Summer Lakes Park.