Curated OER
The Human Footprint
In this environmental stewardship lesson, students view the human footprint website and then answer 3 short answer questions related to human impact on the earth.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: The Lifestyle Project
This is a three-week project that has students explore and assess their personal lifestyle and how their habits impact on the environment. In the process, they learn that they too have a responsibility to minimize any negative impacts,...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: The Lifestyle Project at West Chester University of Pennsylvania
This is a five-week project where students explore and assess their personal lifestyle choices and how their habits impact on the environment. They try making choices that have less of a detrimental effect on the environment, and...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: The Lifestyle Project at the University of Redlands
This is a three-week project where students explore and assess their personal lifestyle choices and how their habits impact on the environment. They try making choices that have less of a detrimental effect on the environment, and...
Virginia Tech
Digital History Reader: Can Humans Control the Natural World?
The course of industrialization and migration of society forced a shift within the natural world. Through context, writing assignments, reports, articles, visual materials, and bibliographical resources this unit dives into the question,...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Epa: Personal Emissions Calculator
Allow yourself 10-15 minutes to enter data to obtain an estimate of your personal greenhouse gas emissions. Then explore actions that you can take to reduce your energy and waste disposal costs. The calculator will display the amount of...
C3 Teachers
C3 Teachers: Inquiries: Geography
A learning module on world geography. It includes several supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Students investigate where their community is located, where...
Burke Museum
Burke Museum: Waterlines: Discover & Explore Seattle's Past Landscapes
Seattle is one of the most dramatically engineered cities in the USA. This rich interactive website enables people to see how Seattle's various landscapes have changed over time. The site starts out with an interactive map of the Puget...
Other
Serengeti National Park
The beautiful, official site for the Serengeti National Park provides extensive information about the Serengeti ecosystem, physical features, wildlife, and taking a safari through the region. As an added bonus, learn some Swahili.
Other
Skidmore College: Lifestyle Project
A copy of an article published in the Journal of Geoscience Education. It describes how the Lifestyle Project got started, and how it is used with students to help them develop an awareness of how their daily habits and actions have an...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Human Impacts on the Environment
Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. These...
Encyclopedia of Earth
Encyclopedia of Earth: Carbon Footprint
An explanation of how a carbon footprint is calculated. Includes graphs comparing countries, sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and individual activities. (Updated: April 5, 2013)
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Resource Usage Project and Journal
Students pick a resource and track their use of it over the course of one week. Students record their data in a spreadsheet, write a summary of it, and draw conclusions from their usage patterns. A detailed student handout is provided.
Other
World Land Trust: Personal Carbon Balanced Calculators
You will find a series of calculators here for exploring what your carbon footprint on the Earth is, based on your use of air travel, your regular means of transportation, your household habits, and fixed carbon dioxide emissions for the...
Other
Global Footprint Network: Footprint Calculator
With this resource, students answer questions about their lifestyles and, in return, receive an ecological footprint report. It states how many planets would be required to support the human race if everyone had the same footprint.
Other
Rare Earth Minerals Power World, but Mining Leaves Local and Global Footprints
The author of this article studies human-altered landscapes. Here, he discusses rare earth mineral mining and the dramatic impact mining operations have on the places where they are located. (Published October 3, 2019)
Other
Wildlife Conservation Society: The Human Footprint [Pdf]
Authors provide an atlas that shows the "Last of the Wild." These areas are the last to be touched by the human footprint.
Better Planet Productions
Earth Care: Reduce Your Ecological Footprint Poster Project
An assignment for students to create a poster that encourages people to reduce their ecological footprints. While it says it's for intermediate grades and up, this activity could easily be done with junior grades as well. There are links...