Texas Aquatic Science Teacher Resources and Guide

Accompanying Texas Aquatic Science is a comprehensive Teacher Guide. The Teacher Guide is available to educators for free download at the following website address:

Texas Parks and Wildlife: https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/learning/aquaticscience/

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 Request Form

2021 Revised

The textbook and 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. Revisions to TEKS are provided for download or viewing.

• 2021 TEKS Download
• 2021 TEKS

Students are introduced to the wide variety of aquatic ecosystems through science investigations, games, models, cooperative learning activities, Internet projects, readings from the student guides, short videos, science journals, and field based assessments of water quality and environmental conditions in a variety of field trips. Students use multiple intelligences to learn and to demonstrate their new knowledge in creative products and performances.

The guide is linked to short videos, which provide an overview of the main ideas in each chapter and to Texas Aquatic Science, which provides clear concise scientific information in an interesting way with illustrations of important concepts, which help clarify major ideas. The curriculum looks at water from the molecular level to the level of aquatic ecosystems, providing activities to guide students through the understanding that the characteristics of the water molecule make it unique in its value to all of life, and conservation of water is a priority for all of us.

The 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.

Lessons in each chapter begin with an activity to allow the teacher to assess what students know about the concepts to be studied. Lessons embed higher order thinking skills, provide depth and complexity of learning, and provide a wide variety of hands-on activities that engage students in a variety of contexts and methods.

Each lesson includes an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned by synthesizing the information and demonstrating their learning by developing creative products or performances. Activities are designed to be inexpensive and to use the materials that are already in most classrooms. Teachers will find the activities easy to implement and fun for students. Teaching materials for some lessons such as aquatic organism game cards, posters, and videos are linked to the curriculum guide and easy for teachers to download and print or view.

Each chapter provides multiple opportunities for assessment. The first lesson in each chapter provides a formative assessment to help teachers plan for appropriate student learning and to help students focus on what is to come. In addition, every lesson has a component to allow students the opportunity to synthesize what they have learned and apply it in creative products and presentations. The student reading also includes questions at the beginning of the chapter, which help students know what to focus on in the reading. These questions help scaffold the reading level for younger students and provide another type of assessment for the teacher to consider. Student science journals are also useful for formative and summative assessments. Each field trip provides opportunities for performance assessment At the end of each chapter there are a multiple choice and open-ended questions for students along with an answer key. The open-ended questions have many possible answers.

Texas Aquatic Science is an internationally-recognized suite of free technology-enhanced learning materials entirely available on-line or in traditional format that takes middle through high school science students through the wonderful world of water, from headwaters to oceans, and molecules to ecosystems. The curriculum is comprehensive, was open to review by all Texas science teachers while being developed, and has been the subject of research studies involving over 167 teachers and 4,500 students in school districts in Austin, Dallas, East Texas, Houston, Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio.  The curriculum has received international recognition, has been the subject of publications in peer reviewed journals, and was featured at the 2017 World Water Congress.

Rosen, R.A. 2019. Water Education Leadership in Texas: Pathway for Students from Middle School to University Degree. Water Resources IMPACT 21(4):30-31.  http://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/water_faculty/10

Rosen, R.A., L.A. Cifuentes, J. Fischer, H. Marquise, J. C. Tracy. 2018. Water Security for Texas: A Post-Secondary Education Pathway for the Water Workforce. Texas Water Journal 9(1):120-128. https://doi.org/10.21423/twj.v9i1.7078

Rosen, R. A., E. Scanlon and J. Smith. 2016. Aquatic science education pathway from headwaters to ocean is a model for place-based experiential learning for protecting and stewarding Gulf states’ freshwater and marine resources. Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions 66:475–485. http://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/water_faculty/11

Rosen, R.A. 2019. Water Security for Texas: A Water Education Pathway for the Next Generation of the Water Workforce. Presentation at the 2019 Texas Aquifer Conference, June 12, Austin, TX.  https://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/water_conferences/8

Rosen, R.A., E. Scanlon, and J. Smith. 2017. Future water stewardship and fact-based water policy: an aquatic science education pathway model. Proceedings of the XVIth International Water Resources Association World Water Congress. May 30, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Presentation: http://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/water_conferences/11

Rosen, R. A. and J. Smith. 2017. STEM Pathway for Aquatic Science: Experiential Learning In and Out of Classrooms. Presentation at the 10th Annual Texas STEM Conference, January 19-20, Dallas, TX.  http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12252.18564

Rosen, R.A. 2016. Marine/Aquatic Science Education and Integrating Formal and Informal Education and Outreach Opportunities: The Texas Aquatic Science Pathway. Global Marine Sustainability Symposium and Workshop, Marine Education Opportunities – Achieving the right mix: overseas students, in-country needs, and informal education and outreach. September 20, Oban, Scotland. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4yltJzK0okMelh3Njgtb3FGZG8  Alternate: https://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/water_conferences/12/

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