Texas Aquatic Science Curriculum

Texas Aquatic Science is a comprehensive aquatic science curriculum, from molecules to ecosystems, and headwaters to ocean, for middle school and high school students.

The curriculum consists of an online student textbook, a teacher guide, specially produced videos, and supplementary materials.

Textbook Grant

All educators are encouraged to apply, with first preference given to schools meeting the following:

1. The school serves a predominantly high need student population with greater than 75% of students representing a low socioeconomic scale.
2. The school commits to actively using the TAS curriculum.
3. The school commits to participate in TAS field activities at a Certified Field Site or on schoolgrounds.
4. Must have requested access to TAS Teacher Guide (see Access Request Form below)

Click here to apply!

Deadline: August 9, 2024

Teacher Guide

To ensure the protection of answers throughout the Texas Aquatic Science Teacher Guide and its sub-parts, they are password protected. Click the Access Request Form (hyperlinked to the current form) to verify your email and receive the password.

Teacher Guide and Answer Key Access (password protected)

Access Request Form

Additional Materials

• Fish Flash Cards
• Maps
• Wetlands Poster
• Coastal Wetlands Poster
• Children’s Books Corresponding by Chapter; An Annotated Bibliography (PDF)

Workshops

Each workshop will meet the following goals:

• Introduce educators to TPWD & TAS materials and resources.
• Provide a sample of field and classroom activities for coastal and inland aquatic habitats.
• Review 2021 TEKS alignment.

Cost: FREE

Currently all three dates will be sharing the same information and activities, if there are aquatic topics you would like to learn about, complete this two-question survey.

When:

Tuesday, July 30 @ 9:00-10:30 AM CT Link to join

Thursday, August 8 @ 1:30-3:00 PM CT Link to join

Tuesday, August 13 @ 9:00-10:30 AM CT Link to join

Interested in a Texas Aquatic Science training, contact Melissa Felty (Alderson) at ConservationEdu@tpwd.texas.gov

Student Materials

Student Portal

TAS Web Portal

Student Textbooks available from Texas A&M University Press
and Kindle version available from Amazon.com.

Features:

• Written for middle school and high school students.
• Designed to help teachers make students aware of the importance of water to life, aquatic ecosystems, and what we must do to conserve water and aquatic life.
• Hands-on classroom and field activities
• Short (around 2 minutes each) videos
• Students learn and demonstrate their new knowledge in creative products and performances.
  
• Science investigations, games, models, Internet projects,
• Field based assessments of water quality and environmental conditions in a variety of field trips
• Lessons embed higher order thinking skills, provide depth and complexity of learning, and engage students in many contexts and methods.

TEKS aligned

All activities are aligned with the state curriculum standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for sixth through eighth grade and for Aquatic Science and Environmental Science courses for high school.

TEKS in Texas Aquatic Science

Texas Aquatic Science Brochure

Texas Aquatic Science is supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Sport Fish Restoration Program funds.

Texas Aquatic Science is a cooperative education project sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife, The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Texas Aquatic Science was modeled after the Missouri Department of Conservation‘s (MDC) curriculum, Conserving Missouri’s Aquatic Ecosystems. Support was provided by the Ewing Halsell Foundation, San Antonio and the Sport Fish Restoration Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.