HANNIBAL, Mo. – First grade teachers are invited to learn about the Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) Discover Nature Schools (DNS) program, First Grade: Exploring Missouri. This free curriculum is aligned to all Missouri Learning Science and Next Generations Science Standards, and it teaches science through the lens of Missouri’s outdoors. MDC staff will be holding a teacher workshop over this curriculum Feb. 27 from 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the Hannibal MDC Office.

This curriculum’s 5E lessons follow the school year with 8 units and 21 lessons using Missouri-focused phenomena. Each lesson concludes with a “Claim, Evidence, Reasoning” student page where students revisit the investigative questions and provide evidence from their learning to support their claim and reasoning. 

The teacher training introduces teachers to the free student guide and teacher guide as well as the MDC Teacher Portal and other resources. This workshop will prepare participants to teach the lessons both indoors and outdoors and address any concerns with outdoor structured activities. 

Learn about the following opportunities during training:

• Fully colored, illustrated student guide
• Lesson plans that include outdoor exploration, cross-curricular extensions
• Long-term loan agreement for first-grade teacher kit 
• Annual travel reimbursement grants up to $7a student for field experience

Register for this workshop at http://short.mdc.mo.gov/4V4. Questions about this event can be sent to Kathi Moore at kathi.moore@mdc.mo.gov. The Hannibal MDC Office is located at 8965 HWY 36 STE 1 in Hannibal.