Louisiana Black Bear Classroom and School Presentations -- These lively presentations bring the bear to life for students and faculty.  The bear provides a vehicle for engaging the environmental stewards of the future in a regionally relevant conservation and restoration success story. 

Louisiana Black Bear Trunks -- A wonderful classroom resource, Bear Trunks are filled with natural history artifacts for an interactive learning experience.  Students can feel a bear pelt, hold a bear skull model, put their hands on a cast of a bear track, and examine preserved bear scat.  Included in the trunk is our multi-media CD "Black Bears and Songbirds of the Lower Mississippi River Valley."  The CD includes graphics and text in a slide show format, complete with audio and video clips and randomized quiz questions at the completion of each section.  A teacher's guide file helps fit the material into any curricula.  Study guide and handouts are also available for students and teachers. 


The Bear Maze  -- This educational exhibit allows children to "be the bear" as the proceed through a maze.  Children learn about bear habits, nutrition, and lifestyle through a series of activites at interactive stations.  Each station represents a season of the year or stage of a bear's life, with full desription and related activity.  Children don 'bear' vests with a pocket that represents the bear's stomach.  In spring they may fill their 'bear tummy' by catching (toy) crawfish in a mock forest stream.  At the fall station they will 'dine' on hard mast like nuts and acorns, then learn about hibernation in dens at the winter station.

The Bear Maze is often used in coordination with classroom and school presentations.  It is also a favorite children's activity at fairs and regional events.

Educational presentations and materials are available in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and southern Arkansas. 

For more information or to request a presentation, trunk, or appearance of the Bear Maze, please contact the BBCC, or call 225.763.5425.



Educator's Guide to Black Bear - Texas version --  This guide was designed for classroom use, and each lesson is aligned with the TEKS.  Students in grades K-5 will engage in cross-curricular activities that will allow them to learn about black bears as well as help them discover ways they can become bear aware. The materials may also be utilized in non-classroom settings such as scout groups, camps, festivals, and more!

          Materials enclosed within this guide include:

          Background information on black bears

          Curriculum lessons

          Glossary

          Resources

          Supplemental activities

 

Download a free copy of the Educator's Guide to Black Bears .pdf or .doc  

Educators, we would also like to ask that you take a minute to fill out our Teacher Evaluation Form and let us know how you used the curriculum in your class or program. Your comments will help us as well in measuring our success with our education and outreach campaign.The future of this Texas native depends on protection of vital habitat and our public education and awareness programs. 

The curriculum lessons in this guide have been created for classroom use.  Materials may be re-printed for educational purposes for use in the classroom only.  If you are interested in using or modifying the activities for other purposes, please contact the East Texas Black Bear Task Force. 

Educator's Guide to Black Bear - Louisiana version -- coming soon.