Institute for Applied Ecology
From Salmonberry to Sagebrush - Exploring Oregon’s Native Plants
Take a deep dive into Oregon's ecosystems, plants, and changes from the past to the future. Many hands-on activities in an environmental science unit delight scholars, including creating a field guide for a local park. The in-depth study...
Kenan Fellows
Making Connections with Water Quality
What's in your water? And, why is water quality so important? Enhance your class's level of water appreciation through a lesson that demonstrates the necessity of water quality. Environmental enthusiasts explore the EPA's Clean Water...
Curated OER
Earth: Our Big Blue Marble
Students investigate Earth and its resources. In this Earth, space, and nature lesson plan, students collaborate to design presentations on the Earth, its cycles, and how humans have impacted the planet. Images, diagrams, and background...
Curated OER
Class Conservation Corps (CCC)
Students investigate how the loss of soil, a valuable natural resource, affects their lives through loss of productive land to grow food, loss of coastal land mass, and poor water quality from runoff. They design a project to keep soil...
Curated OER
What's Happening Below The Surface?
Pupils determine the soil composition of soil layers in their area. They collect soil samples, calculate the percentage soil water content, analyze data, and evaluate each site for future tree growth.
Curated OER
Fossil Fuel and the Ticking Clock
Learners study energy sources to learn about fossil fuels and environmental concerns. In this energy sources lesson, students watch demonstrations for various energy examples. Learners find hidden pennies, make a bar graph on their data,...
Curated OER
What Is Sustainability
Students investigate the concept of how people are dependent upon natural resources and how they can apply them to be maximized in usefulness. The students are encouraged to develop an appreciation for the environment. They conduct a...
Curated OER
Stakeholder Debate: Ethics and Lead
Students work in teams to develop a presentation and handout representing a particular point of view in a Lead Debate. They synthesize their varied knowledge of lead and its issues, organize this knowledge, and present it persuasively to...
Curated OER
Mushrooms Can Save the World
Students use mushrooms to solve problems. In this environmental lesson, students study how fungi have been used to combat environmental problems. Students design strategies that employ mushrooms to combat other environmental challenges.
Curated OER
Be the Kiwi
Learners explore aspects of New Zealand's environment. In this environmental geography lesson, students research the geography, resources and climate of New Zealand. This lesson includes a game, rubric, and extension.
Curated OER
Watershed Model
Students view a presentation of water and land and how we need to protect our water resources. In this water lesson plan, students discuss how we rely on water, and complete activities in all subjects related to water.
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Permafrost Gas Leak
Pair earth scientists up to use an amazing online arctic portal mapping tool and Google Earth to analyze permafrost changes. They compare changes to data on atmospheric concentrations of methane to see if there is a correlation. Then...
Wilderness Classroom
Pollution
Educate scholars on pollution—air, water, and land—with a series of lessons that begin with a thorough explanation of each type. Learners then take part in three activities to reinforce the importance of reducing pollution. They...
Teach Engineering
Extinction Prevention via Engineering
It's time to save endangered species through engineering. The third activity in a nine-part Life Science unit has young environmentalists study species extinction. An engaging discussion leads to some ideas on how to use engineering...
Teach Engineering
Capillarity – Measuring Surface Tension
How do cohesion and adhesion work together? The third installment of a nine-part series teaches young scientists the difference between adhesion and cohesion. They also learn how cohesion and adhesion work together to cause capillary...
Curated OER
Toward a Sustainable Agriculture
Read about sustainable agriculture and complete related Internet activities. After reading background information about the economics of sustainable agriculture and the problems with the industrial food system, your students click on...
Forest Foundation
The Sustainable Forest
As part of their examination of forest ecosystems, class members examine how foresters, biologists, botanists, geologists, and hydrologists work to together to develop a management plan for sustainable forests.
Intel
Composting: Why Bother?
The first STEM lesson in a group of 10 explores composting. After discussing how to make a better tomorrow, classes are challenged to track garbage in their communities, visit a local waste management facility, and conduct a survey...
Curated OER
Arsenic Globally
High schoolers, using directed questions, identify five internet resources. They use these resources to identify relevant information by highlighting those sections that address the provided questions. Students present the answers to...
Curated OER
Earth: the Apple of Our Eye
Young scholars dissect an apple to model the percentage of land on Earth that can be used as a food-producing resource. They use fractions to determine the habitable and agriculture area of the apple.
Curated OER
Runoff with Chunky the Chicken
Students are introduced to the on-farm nutrient cycle, which explains feed to manure, to soil, and back to the feed. They are introduced to the generation of runoff during rainstorms, and the contents of runoff water are more than water...
Curated OER
On the Brink
Students view a film about environmental issues. They discover how environmental degradation can lead to disease. They identify the relationship between population growth and the environment.
Curated OER
An Underground River
Seventh graders describe how water flows through the ground, what an aquifer is and what soil properties are used to predict groundwater flow. They consider the affects of pollution on groundwater supplies and write a letter drawing...
Curated OER
Super Stream Keeper's
Students are introduced to Delaware's waterways as precious resources used for drinking water, water for agricultural and industrial uses, recreational areas, and as habitats for wildlife. They are introduced to wastewater discharges,...