Teacher's Corner
For additional resources, please visit TBEP's Video Lending Library,
which allows teachers, students and others to borrow environmental videos FREE for up to a month.
You must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer in order to view and print any PDF documents below.
If you do not have Adobe Reader, please
visit the Adobe website
to download and install this free software application.
Elementary School Level
"Tina Tern"
Learn about the perils facing beach-nesting birds such as least terns and black skimmers by following little Tina Tern,
who was born on the rooftop of a building near Tampa Bay. Created by the St. Petersburg Audubon Society with a grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary s many activities for children in grades 3-5 and is designed to meet Florida's Sunshine State curriculum standards.
Teachers, download "Tina Tern" and make copies for your entire class! (PDF Format)
Middle School Level
"Exploring Tampa Bay, A Teachers Guide to Florida's Largest Estuary"
Designed for students at the middle-school level, this guide assists teachers and parents in educating pupils about the bay's outstanding
natural resources, and its most pressing problems. Contains six teaching units that feature handouts, fast facts about the bay and classroom
activities utilizing science, social studies, writing, and mathematics skills. The guide will be sent on CD unless a hard copy is specifically requested, or
you can download it off our website.
Teachers, download "Exploring Tampa Bay: A Teachers Guide to Florida's Largest Estuary" for your class! (PDF Format)
"Invasive Species Teaching Guide"
The first teaching guide to marine invasive species in Florida is now available from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Designed for middle-school students, "Intruders in Paradise" contains 12 classroom activities, website references, a master vocabulary list, 29 Fact Sheets about individual invasive plants and animals, and additional resources - all as downloadable web-based files. Activities are aligned with both FCAT learning benchmarks and Sunshine State curriculum standards for grades 6-8.
The "Intruders in Paradise" guide was developed by The Florida Aquarium with assistance and funding from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Florida Sea Grant and the UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service.
Teachers, download the Invasive Species Teaching Guide and make copies for your entire class! (PDF Format)
"Where The Wild Things Are" Poster
"Habitat Is Where It's At!" is the theme of a new educational poster guide spotlighting the wild and wonderful creatures of the Tampa Bay watershed.
The poster, designed for grades 6-12, features a stunning photo mosaic of animals that inhabit a cross-section of bay habitats, from underwater seagrass meadows to upland forests and streams. On the back of this colorful poster are a series of lesson plans, activity extensions, and resources that explore the connection between healthy wildlife populations and healthy habitats.
The poster was produced by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and the University of South Florida Department of Marine Science. All lesson plans in the poster guide were created using current Florida Sunshine State Standards for science, social studies, language arts and the arts. The lessons were reviewed by environmental educators in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties.
A special thanks go to the many talented professional photographers who donated photos for the project, and to Carolyn Fay of Marketing Works EDU for coordinating design and production of TBEP's first educational poster.
Teachers in the Tampa Bay region may obtain their FREE poster guide by calling the TBEP office at (727) 893-2765 or
by using our online contact form. The poster also is available to the general public for
a $5 shipping and handling fee.
For more information about the animals found on the poster, please see the Critters of Tampa Bay page
of our Portrait of the Tampa Bay Estuary section of the website.
High School Level
"Living Legacy Teaching Guide"
A companion teaching guide to TBEP's award-winning documentary film, "Tampa Bay: Living Legacy" is now available to high school teachers in the Tampa Bay watershed.
The CD-based guide was created by a team of teachers in Hillsborough County. Although intended primarily for 9th grade biology, marine biology or integrated science classes, it is suitable for other high school grades as well. The film and teaching guide are both divided into six chapters; the teaching CD features six complete lesson plans, classroom activities, supplemental Power Point presentations, and vocabulary lists.
All lesson plans adhere to Florida's High School Curriculum Standards. Lesson plans cover such topics as seagrasses, threats to the bay and key events in the natural and cultural history of Tampa Bay. The topics mirror those addressed in the 60-minute "Living Legacy" documentary film, that chronicles Tampa Bay's transformation from a relatively unspoiled paradise in the 1950s, to a waterway battered by pollution in the 1970s, to its amazing rebirth and recovery beginning some 25 years ago and continuing today.
"Tampa Bay: Living Legacy" features interviews with scientists, elected officials and citizens, including well-known Floridians such as former Governor of Florida Bob Martinez, the Mayors of both Tampa and St. Petersburg, and former State Education Commissioner Betty Castor. Compelling archival images help tell the bay's story, along with extensive new footage showcasing the extraordinary beauty of the bay's habitats and inhabitants.
TBEP Public Outreach Coordinator Nanette O'Hara said she is pleased to be able to extend the reach of the film into classrooms through the companion teaching guide.
"So many kids in our area really have no idea how far the bay has come in its recovery, or how citizens contributed to that recovery through persistence and determination," she said. "We hope the teaching guide will inspire the next generation of bay champions - our young people. The continued restoration of the bay is truly in their hands."
To obtain your copy of the "Tampa Bay: Living Legacy" teaching guide, call Nanette at (727) 893-2765 or
use our online contact form. CDs can only be provided to public or private school teachers, or informal environmental educators, within the Tampa Bay watershed.
