The Explorers Club Teaching Fellowship sends teachers on immersive expeditions as full-fledged team members. While on expedition, Teaching Fellows work alongside local and international scientists, conservationists, and other professions.

Upon their return, Teaching Fellows serve as ambassadors for The Explorers Club and exploration by sharing what they learned with their students, their colleagues, and teachers around the world.

We are excited to share their carefully crafted lesson plans below. We hope that, over time, this webpage becomes a Hub to support teachers in including exploration and conservation in their classrooms.

curricula

  • Boiling River 2025 - 360° by Julie Klipfel
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    In this lesson, students will use immersive VR technology to understand the unique characteristics of the Boiling River, analyze environmental challenges at different scales, synthesize information from multiple sources, and demonstrate empathy and agency as global citizens.

    View the lesson here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 4-6 (ages 9-13).
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goals
      • SDG 4: Quality Education – Target 4.7: Ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development
      • SDG 13: Climate Action – Target 13.3: Improve education and awareness on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and impact reduction
    • Compatible with Standards:
      • Next Generation Science Standards: 3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

    Created by Julie Klipfel, 2025 Teaching Fellow

  • Boiling River 2025 - The Watch as Our Witness by Julie Klipfel
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    In this lesson, students will analyze what an item on expedition “witnessed” and demonstrate creative thinking and empathy by writing poetry from the perspective of an item using poetic devices.

    View the lesson plan here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 4-6 (ages 9-13).
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goals
      • SDG 4: Quality Education – Target 4.7: Ensure all learners acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development
      • SDG 15: Life on Land – Target 15.5: Take urgent action to reduce degradation of natural habitats
      • SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Target 17:15: Encourage effective partnerships
    • Compatible with Standards:
      • CCSS ELA Literacy: W.4-6.3: Write narrative to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details, and clear event sequences
      • CCSS ELA Literacy: RL.4-6.6: Compare and contract the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations
      • Next Generation Science Standards: 3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

    Created by Julie Klipfel, 2025 Teaching Fellow

  • Boiling River 2025 - From Witness to Guardian by Julie Klipfel
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    In this lesson, students will learn about the many stakeholders involved in the conservation of a precious place, in the context of Peru’s Boiling River. Working collaboratively, students will create a “Declaration of Ethical Exploration.”

    View the lesson plan here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 4-6 (ages 9-12)
    • Time Needed: 3 days, 45 minutes each day
      • Extension ideas provided
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goals
      • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
        • Target 12.8: Ensure people have relevant information for sustainable lifestyles in harmony with nature
      • SDG 15: Life on Land
        • Target 15.5: Take urgent action to reduce degradation of natural habitats
      • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
        • Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory decision-making.
    • Compatible with Standards:
      • Next Generation Science Standards: 3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

    Created by Julie Klipfel, 2025 Teaching Fellow

  • Stingless Bees by Ben Walker
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    In this lesson, students will understand the diversity of bees worldwide and the wide diversity of stingless bees. In videos from experts and independent reading materials, students will synthesize information to understand the importance of bees in biodiversity, food, health, and medicine and what can be learned from Indigenous communities. Students will also have an introduction to the Rights of Nature.

    View the lesson plan here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)
    • Time Needed: 1 – 3 class periods, 45 minutes each day
      • (optional extension)
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goal
      • SDG 15: Life on Land
        • Target 15.5: Take urgent action to reduce degradation of natural habitats
    • Compatible with Standards:
      • Next Generation Science Standards: MS-LS2.5, DCI LS2.C – Biodiversity describes the variety of species found in the Earth’s terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The completeness or integrity of an ecosystem’s biodiversity is often used as a measure of its health.

    Created by Ben Walker, 2025 Teaching Fellows

  • Storytelling and Communication in Science by Ben Walker
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    In this lesson, students will understand the main components of what makes a good story, as well as the main components of storytelling in science communication and environmental advocacy. Students will apply their acquired storytelling skills through a method of their own choosing.

    View the lesson plan and activity here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)
    • Time Needed:
      • For introduction to storytelling – 1 – 2 class periods, 45 minutes each day
      • For “Creating a Story of Place” – 2 – 4 class periods, 45 minutes each day
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goal
      • SDG 4: Quality Education – Ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
    • Compatible with Standards:
      • Understandings of the Nature of Science MS, Science as a Way of Knowing: “Science is both a body of knowledge and the processes and practices used to add to that body of knowledge.  Science knowledge is cumulative and many people, from many generations and nations, have contributed to science knowledge.  Science is a way of knowing used by many people, not just scientists.”

    Created by Ben Walker, 2025 Teaching Fellow

  • Extremeophiles by Ben Walker
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    In this lesson, students will understand the variety of adaptations that extremophiles have developed to survive in heat, cold, salt, pressure, and acidic conditions and how those can be applied by scientists in innovative ways.

    View the lesson plan and activity here.

    • Perfect for students in grades 5-8 (ages 10-14)
    • Time Needed: 1 Class period (45 minutes)
    • Compatible with UN Sustainable Development Goals
      • SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, Infrastructure: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
      • SDG 13: Climate Action – Target 13.3: Improve education and awareness on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and impact reduction
      • SDG 14 – Life Below Water – Target 14.8: Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology… in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing States and least developed countries.

    Created by Ben Walker, 2025 Teaching Fellow

Many thanks to our inaugural class of Teaching Fellows, Jonathan Fallas, Julie Klipfel, Alejandro Mundo, and Ben Walker for leading the way; our expedition leader, Andrés Ruzo, for championing education and educators in the field; The Explorers Club Education Committee co-chairs, Joe Grabowksi and Christine Nealy; our 2025 and 2026 review panel; and everyone who has supported The Explorers Club Teaching Fellowship.