Highland Park is home to a rare and complex system of ravines linking the land with Lake Michigan, and this Ravine Education Program Guide aims to make this system more accessible for you and your students.

Through guided observation and exploration of the ravines, these lesson plans and classroom activities will enable your 4th-8th grade students to understand ecosystems prior to development, the plants and animals that historically used the slopes and streams as refuge, and the species that still depend on ravines today. Additionally, the Guide is linked to Next Generation Science Standards, putting instructors in a unique position to use their local place to provide students with an internationally benchmarked science education.

The Park District of Highland Park aims to preserve and restore the ravines to provide the best possible habitat for the native plant and animal species that call the ravines home. The PDHP currently oversees a particularly exciting project striving to restore the ravine system at Ravine Drive. Funded by the USEPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the project resulted in improvements to fish spawning habitat.