-OUTDOOR RECREATION AND BIODIVERSITY ON-
Teachers' Lounge: Teaching the Clinch
Want to use the Clinch and its unique wildlife and ecosystems to integrate place-based instruction into your science classroom? We've developed a series of tools that sync the Clinch and its biodiversity into K-12 science curricula using Virginia's Standards of Learning. Best of all, each of these tools is free to download and use. Check out the items below for more info.
Teach The Clinch Curriculum Guide
Teach the Clinch contains more than 50 lesson plans for the K-12 classroom. Each lesson uses the Clinch Valley and its natural assets to communicate broader topics to students, ranging across biology and geology to watershed science. Assembled by Carol Doss and Christopher Anama-Green and coordinated through Friends of Southwest Virginia and CRVI's Environmental Education Action Team, the guide is free to all educators thanks to funding from the Virginia Environmental Endowment. Access the digital version here or by clicking on the photo to the right. Once on the website, you can download lesson plans directly or send the entire guide to a Kindle or other device.
Field Trip Ideas for Educators
Want to get students outside to explore the Clinch Valley and its unique natural resources? Our field trip guide provides a list of organizations and destinations that provide programming for school groups, ranging across topics from the environmental sciences to the natural and cultural history of southwest Virginia. Check out the list by clicking here or by clicking on the photo to the right.
Virtual "Tours" of the Clinch Valley
Want your students to explore the Clinch Valley but can't get off campus? Students and faculty at UVa-Wise have developed a series of interactive tools designed to give students experience with the Clinch Valley's unique natural assets without leaving the classroom. Each of the tours below is housed in Google Earth or similar platforms and takes students through an overview of a unique ecosystem or organism found in the Clinch, using these examples to introduce broader topics in the sciences. Use these tools to supplement your own instruction or develop an entirely new lesson plan of your own using each guide. (Note: each guide is designed to work on most browser platforms, and a plug-in may be available for some browsers to make some guides visible in 3-D. Check the info on each guide for more details.)
High Elevation Secrets of the Clinch Valley
Hidden on mountain summits in southwest Virginia is a unique ecosystem found more commonly in Canada and New England. How did it get here, and why does it remain today? Learn more about one of our most unusual and fascinating ecosystems - including how scientists understand the mountains' past - in this tour of some of Virginia's highest peaks.
Southwest Virginia's Vernal Pools
Some of southwest Virginia's most important ecosystems can be easy to miss...and don't last for long. Use this tour to learn more about vernal pool ecosystems, including what makes these wetlands unique, what threats they face, and how scientists and everyday citizens can help conserve them for future generations.
What The Heck Is A Hellbender?
One of southwest Virginia's most fascinating creatures is also one of its most elusive. The Eastern Hellbender, also known locally as a Waterdog or Grampus, is North America's largest salamander and lives in our region's rivers and larger streams. Even though hellbenders are ancient animals, they're in trouble...and disappearing. Why? This tour takes you through the Clinch Valley and beyond to learn about this unique animal and see how it relates to water quality and land use in Appalachia.
Southwest Virginia's High Knob
High Knob - located at the edge of the Clinch Valley above the City of Norton - is a special place. But did you know you can learn about much of the natural history of central Appalachia by simply enjoying the view from High Knob? This guide was designed to help visitors to High Knob Tower learn more about what they are seeing when they visit, although it also works in the classroom. Give the guide a spin to learn about what makes High Knob and southwest Virginia so unique.
Educational Videos
We're also compiling a collection of videos on topics related to biodiversity and environmental education in the Clinch Valley. Check out videos below, use them in your classroom, or incorporate them into lesson plans from Teach the Clinch or those you develop on your own! (Note: these videos have been produced by groups outside of CRVI that do not necessarily endorse or partner with this initiative.)
What does it mean to say that our Appalachian rivers have some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world? This video by Freshwaters Illustrated provides a wonderful visual overview of the life found in our regional rivers and streams.
Much of the Southwest Virginia's biodiversity remains mostly hidden in rivers and streams. This feature by Freshwaters Illustrated accompanies a student group to the Cherokee National Forest to examine this diversity while snorkeling with the USDA Forest Service
Scientists are working all across Appalachia to restore our region's freshwater mussels - a group of organisms that helps make us one of the most biodiverse places in the world. This video by Virginia DGIF gives an overview of work being done to help restore these unqiue animals.
Southwest Virginia is home to the largest salamander in North America - a species that is disappearing at an alarming rate. Learn more about the science behind this incredible creature and efforts to save it in this feature from Freshwaters Illustrated.
The Eastern Hellbender (see the video in the top row above) is a special but declining aquatic species in our region. This video from Virginia DGIF discusses research being done to help hellbenders and introduces you to some of the scientists working on this species in our area.
Free Virtual Lessons for Remote Instruction
Are you and your students socially distancing at home this spring? Dr. Wally Smith at UVa-Wise is partnering with researchers from various colleges, universities, and state agencies across Virginia to produce some free online lessons focused around biodiversity and the outdoors in and around the Clinch Valley. Each lesson details a species, habitat, or ecosystem found in the Clinch Valley, and several provide info on interactive citizen science initiatives that students and families can participate in at home. Feel free to use or share any of the below videos, and we will update this page as new lessons are produced weekly.
Dr. Kevin Hamed (Virginia Tech) discusses an interactive citizen science project involving that Mountain Chorus Frog - a rare and understudied species in southwest Virginia - that students and families can participate in at home.
Anne Wright (VCU) and Susan Watson (VDGIF) introduce vernal pools - a small but important wildlife habitat found across the Clinch Valley - and discuss ongoing research across Virginia aimed at understanding these fascinating ecosystems.
MORE VIRTUAL LESSONS
COMING SOON!
Seth Thompson (VDGIF) discusses the biology of black bears, their role in southwest Virginia's forests, and ways that landowners, families, and others can live safely alongside these remarkable creatures.