The Toronto Zoo is committed to the conservation of wildlife through the exhibition of animals,plants and ecological habitats and through conservation, preservation, research and educational programs. The Zoo also has a strong mandate to improve public awareness with the goal of species and habitat conservation, which involves the local delivery of curriculum-based education programs.Located adjacent to the largest freshwater source on the planet, it seemed only natural for the Zoo to help foster an appreciation of the North American Great Lakes. This interest and passion led to the creation of the Zoo's highly successful, bilingual Great Lakes Program. Core to this conservation program is classroom outreach, which combines lessons about water as well as the species and processes associated with this amazing ecosystem. The creation of The Great Lakes Teaching & Learning Resource has been developed as two case studies to provide Ontario educators with classroom materials directly applicable to the Ontario Science and Technology Curriculum objectives and using the North American Great Lakes as the context for teaching and learning. Applying an Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach, the resource objective is to acquaint students with the North American Great Lakes and to foster a better understanding of their own role as stewards for its preservation. The second case study presents the material as a more fundamental Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) format and encourages the use of Internet-based resources.

Electronic reproduction.