ECOS Program - No Child Left Indoors!

Ecologists Educators and Schools
Partners in GK-12 Education

No Child Left Indoors!

ECOS is a partnership program for enhancing teaching skills of graduate students in the sciences and promoting hands-on science education in K-12 schools. We use the schoolyard and adjacent open areas in western Montana as outdoor laboratories for learning about the environment.

Ecology and environmental sciences graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Montana are showing K-12 students and their teachers how to use an ecological lens for viewing their schoolyard. Instead of a playground, they learn to see an ecological laboratory filled with organisms with interesting adaptations and interactions. The ECOS teams model what ecologists do by immersing themselves in ecological investigations in their schoolyard and classroom laboratories.

Florence Carlton outdoor classroom

Florence Carlton School: Ecology for the whole school in an improved, accessible outdoor classroom

The Florence Carlton School has continued last years’ improvement of the outdoor classroom, while helping teachers incorporate many ecological aspects of the classroom into their teaching across the K-12 curriculum. The ECOS team wanted all ecological aspects of the OC to be put to use.
After removing abandoned cement slabs, old bed frames, garbage, fencing, and some of the population of knapweed, the team helped the school find a contractor who successfully created a wheelchair-accessible trail through the outdoor classroom. Once the trail was built, an entrance kiosk was installed, over 150 native plants were planted, and plant ID plaques put in place.
The team also put together an ecology-based Discovery Booklet that will help teachers organize inquiries and start discussions involving ecological topics that will capture student interest. To go along with the Discovery Booklet, an Inquiry Binder is now available, providing teachers with investigations for the outdoor classroom.