Agent skill

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer

by GarethManning in GarethManning/education-agent-skills

Design an inquiry sequence anchored in a local ecosystem that embeds science or geography curriculum content.

Custom licenceAuto-check passedEducation

Install Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer

skills CLI
$ npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install GarethManning/education-agent-skills ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/environmental-experiential-learning/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer .claude/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer
GitHub stars
840
Token cost
~6k tokens
SKILL.md length
2,225 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
160
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Custom licence

At a glance

Design an inquiry sequence anchored in a local ecosystem that embeds science or geography curriculum content.

  • Works in 4 steps: Systems thinking. The pond is not a… → Seasonal awareness. Through weekly… → Ecological reciprocity. Students learn… → …
  • Teaching through local living systems like gardens
  • SKILL.md covers What This Skill Does, Evidence Foundation, Input Schema and Prompt, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Design an inquiry sequence anchored in a local ecosystem that embeds science or geography curriculum content. Use when teaching through local living systems like gardens, ponds, or hedgerows.

Its SKILL.md is about 6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Education. The repository describes itself as: 165 evidence-grounded AI skills for teachers, school leaders and EdTech builders—pedagogy, learning science, curriculum, assessment and regeneration. Claude, Codex and Hermes.

When your agent uses it

  • Teaching through local living systems like gardens

Example prompts

  • “/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Systems thinking. The pond is not a collection of individual organisms — it is a SYSTEM where everything is connected. Changing one…
  2. Seasonal awareness. Through weekly visits, students notice that the pond changes through the term — species appear and disappear, plants…
  3. Ecological reciprocity. Students learn FROM the pond and give back TO the pond. This is Kimmerer's principle: knowledge creates…
  4. The value of long-term observation. A single visit gives a snapshot. Twelve weeks gives a story. Students learn that ecological…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6bbbce4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer loads about 6k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 57 tokens; SKILL.md has 2,225 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~57
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~6k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

Its licence (Custom licence) doesn't allow us to republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 2,225 words (~5,961 tokens).

“Designs a sustained ecological inquiry anchored in a specific local ecosystem — a pond, garden, hedgerow, tree, or even a window box — connecting curriculum science objectives to direct investigation of living systems that students can observe, monitor, and care…”

— opening of SKILL.md by GarethManning, Custom licence
name
ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer
disable-model-invocation
false
user-invocable
true
effort
medium
skill_id
environmental-experiential-learning/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer
skill_name
Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer
domain
environmental-experiential-learning
version
1.0
evidence_strength
moderate
evidence_sources
Sobel (1996) — Beyond Ecophobia: reclaiming the heart in nature education, Sobel (2004) — Place-Based Education: connecting classrooms and communities, Orr…
output_schema.type
object

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/environmental-experiential-learning/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer of GarethManning/education-agent-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6bbbce4

Compare with similar skills

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer this skillGarethManning/education-agent-skills840—~6kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
DeepTutor CLIHKUDS/DeepTutor41k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
AI Engineering Placement Quizrohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch67k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Deep Reading Analystginobefun/deep-reading-analyst-skill3544 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
OpenMAIC Setup and ExtensionTHU-MAIC/OpenMAIC40k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Codebase to Coursezarazhangrui/codebase-to-course5.7k—~4.4kAutomated safety check: PassNone

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Categories

Questions about Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer

What does Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer do?

Design an inquiry sequence anchored in a local ecosystem that embeds science or geography curriculum content. Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer is an agent skill from GarethManning/education-agent-skills. Design an inquiry sequence anchored in a local ecosystem that embeds science or geography curriculum content.

When should I use Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer?

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer fits situations like: teaching through local living systems like gardens.

How do I install Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/environmental-experiential-learning/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer in GarethManning/education-agent-skills) into .claude/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer in Codex?

Run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/environmental-experiential-learning/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer in GarethManning/education-agent-skills) into .agents/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add GarethManning/education-agent-skills --skill ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer, .gemini/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer, .github/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer and .opencode/skills/ecological-inquiry-anchor-designer in your project.

What does Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer is instructions for the agent only.

Does Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer use?

Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer has a licence file (the repository's licence) that doesn't match a standard licence. Read it on GitHub before reusing the skill.

How many tokens does Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer use?

About 6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 24k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer: DeepTutor CLI (HKUDS/DeepTutor, 41k stars), AI Engineering Placement Quiz (rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch, 67k stars), Deep Reading Analyst (ginobefun/deep-reading-analyst-skill, 354 stars) and OpenMAIC Setup and Extension (THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC, 40k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Ecological Inquiry Anchor Designer?

GarethManning (a GitHub user) maintains it in GarethManning/education-agent-skills, which has 840 GitHub stars. The repository holds 160 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 28, 2026.

Source: GarethManning/education-agent-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.