Lending Library

How Long:

Materials in the Butler SWCD’s Lending Library can be borrowed for up to 7 days, unless otherwise noted. Materials can be borrowed for consecutive terms, as long as no one is on the waiting list for loaned items.

Delivery:

It is the borrowers responsibility to pick-up and drop-off  materials.   Occasionally, an employee of the Butler SWCD office will be near your location and may be able to pick-up or drop-off the item.

Requirements:

The borrower must be a resident of Butler County, or teach within Butler County to be able to sign-out items. Copyrights must be observed on the publications in order to sign them out. All of our books are copyrighted and should not be reproduced unless stated in the book as a copy sheet/student page.. Photocopies of other items are available.

Questions:

If you have any questions, or would like to borrow an item, contact  Lynn White, at (513) 887-3720 or by email

To Order:

Contact Butler SWCD at (513) 887-3720 or by email. Please have your calendar ready when you call in order to schedule loan dates.

What's Available?

There is a wide assortment of videos availabel on many topics. Call if you are interested in a video. The main item that people borrow are the lesson kits which are listed below.

Soils (Elem)
This kit contains the supplies for conducting several experiments with your students including soil sieves for looking at particle size. The kit also contains numerous books on soil, erosion, weathering etc.

Incredible Journey (Elem—Middle School)
Using giant dice, students move as water drops around the water cycle. This helps students understand that water doesn’t always follow the same simple path through the cycle. Add pollution to the mix and watch how it  moves around the water cycle.

Watershed Model (Enviroscape) (Elem - Middle school)
This plastic model is grat for students to come up with different ways in which te environment can be polluted and then witness how it can be washed into our lakes nad rivers. The kit contains materials such as chocolate powder and drink mix to be used as the pollution.

Rock Cycle (Upper Elm—High School)
A great alternative to teaching the rock cycle from the book. In this activity students will become minerals moving around the rock cycle. Through throws of giant dice, students will have to figure out what happens if they are eroded, or what happens if they are heated and squeezed.

Where Does Water Run? (Upper Elem—High School)
This great activity from Project WILD Aquatic combines math and science. Students calculate the area of the school property either using maps or by measuring outside. Then combining this information with rainfall maps, they can calculate the volume and weight of the rainwater that lands on the property in one  year. The amount of water will astonish your students.

Maps (Upper Elem—High School)
This kit has everything in it that you need to teach students about topographic maps.  The students can create landform from a map, and then create a map from a landform. This all helps to make it easier to read maps. The kit also contains a variety of maps (physical, political, and thematic) and also a topographic of your area of the county.

Worm Bin (all levels)
An ecosystem in a box! A worm bin is a great classroom resource, and you can borrow ours for up to 4 weeks. The bin is easy to care for, just bury  left over fruit and veg, in their box and make sure their bedding is moist.  Bin comes with a selection of great books; including one on care and another with experiments and activities that you can try

Water Quality Monitoring Kit (Upper Elem—High School)
This kit, created through a grant from the Ohio Environmental Education Fund allows you and your students to test water quality in the classroom! Focusing on biological monitoring, this kit contains real samples of bugs (macroinvertebrates) that are found into rivers and creeks around Butler County. These bugs have been preserved in plastic and are near indestructible. Using the bug identification sheets, students figure out the water quality for each. You don’t have to have experience identifying these stream creatures to be able to use the kit.  Using the materials provided you can quickly create two simulated streams (without water), one is “healthy” and one is “polluted.”  This way students can visually look for the differences between the two creeks before testing the water quality using the macroinvertebrates. This lesson can take from 1-2 class periods.

Water Use (Upper Elem-Middle School)
Students create water meters to chart their water use . Monitoring water use helps students analyze the quantity of water they use and how they  use it. Recognizing water involvement helps students foster an appreciation. Environmental Science, math.  Takes up to 1 week for lesson.

Sum of the Parts (Upper Elem-Middle School)
Student groups create a drawing of their own riverfront property to demonstrate how everyone contributes to the pollution of a river. Helps students recognize that everyone’s “pollution contribution” can be reduced.
Poison Pump (Middle School)
A killer has swept through the streets of London; hundreds are dead! Through a series of clues, students solve a mystery to discover that water can also produce negative effects for people. Includes maps, clues and victim descriptions. History, Life science, Health. 50 minutes

Super Sleuths (Middle School)
Students learn about the diversity of water bone illnesses and the role  of epidemiology in disease control by searching for others who have been “infected” with the same water-borne illness as they have. Health, life science, geography. 50 minutes

Forest Fire Kit (Upper Elem—High School)
This kit from Project Learning Tree has everything that you need to teach about forest fires. You may think, Ohio doesn’t have forest! fires However, Ohio is estimated to experience more than 15,000 wildfire and natural fuel fire occurrences a year. These wildfires are attributed primarily to the careless burning of debris and arson.  The kit contains a dvd, books, lesson plan and activity materials.