The Great Northern Forest: From Science to Stewardship
This comprehensive natural science curriculum includes 36 distinct topics, each with Museum-based experiences and a complete guide to the topic's content and well-tested activities. Subjects touch on all aspects of the ecology of the four-state region known as the Great Northern Forest. Information, resources, and activities for teachers and students in grades 4 - 8 cover subjects ranging from Down and Dirty: The Basics of Soil to Northern Forest Birds: Signs of Hope and Trouble.

You may download our Great Northern Curriculum units for free.

This curriculum is designed to help the children of the 26 million acre Great Northern Forest region understand the scientific processes and natural systems that surround them and to explore the many changes impinging on those systems. In addition, the curriculum seeks to validate the generations of traditional knowledge possessed by their families and hone the values they will apply to their future stewardship of the region's natural resources.

Great Northern Forest programs are available to schools in northern Vermont and New Hampshire, or class groups on-site at the Museum. Please contact Tara Robinson Holt regarding classes we are currently offering at the Museum or view our Schedule (pdf format). You may also contact Tara to request Great Northern Forest classes you would like us to offer on-site in the future.

Each Northern Forest curriculum unit is aligned with the Vermont Framework of Standards and contains goals for the class, key vocabulary, a class outline with in-class activities, follow-up activities and resources for teachers, and the Vermont Standards addressed.

Some of you may have moved into the participating schools since the beginning of this project three years ago. We would like to make sure that you have a complete set of the materials and the binder for them. You will have 36 full class packets and one Guide to Trees. We may produce more packets in the future that will be mailed to you if you remain on our mailing list. When the final mailing arrives, please examine your complete collection and request any missing class packets and/or a binder if you do not have one. Additional complete sets may be purchased from the Museum at $60.00 if they are picked up here or $75.00 if they are mailed. For more information about the curriculum, please contact Pat Swartz.

The development of this comprehensive natural science curriculum is made possible through the generous support of the Turrell Fund and Museum friends Richard Rachals and Susan Kashanski. The publication and distribution of the printed curriculum packets to schools throughout Vermont is made possible by a grant from the A.D. Henderson Foundation. The Great Northern Forest curriculum on-line is supported by a grant from the Highfield Foundation.