The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is pleased to present this balanced, comprehensive guidebook to help teachers inform future decision-makers about this important natural resource.
Our Mississippi has been years in the making. In 1986, Congress designated the Upper Mississippi River System as both a nationally signifi cant ecosystem and a nationally signifi cant navigation system. Since then, the Corps hasworked with multiple groups and agencies to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the river.
This guidebook is a result of several different programs and partnerships that included other federal agencies, five states, and a wide variety of environmental, conservation, navigation, and industry groups to strike that ever-crucial balance of human and wildlife interests.
The main goal of Our Mississippi is to provide teachers with a mix of classroom, self-directed, and collaborative lessons and activities about the Upper Mississippi River that meet a wide range of national learning standards. They follow a multidisciplinary approach, weaving science, technology, and math with social science, language, and arts collaboratively to address complex, reallife resource management issues and multiple uses of the river.
The lessons and activities chosen for the guidebook focus on concepts that can be investigated or demonstrated. Designed for grades 5 and 6, each unit includes activities or extension ideas for upper and lower grades as well.