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...
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Poisoned Picnic
A group of teachers attended a picnic; ten became sick and another four died. Young scholars must solve the mystery of what happened. They research the river, waste water treatment plant, each food that was served, and environmental...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2010
This exam touches upon every topic within the typical first year biology course.. A broad variety of question styles give high schoolers every opportunity to show what they know. Why start from scratch when a comprehensive final exam is...
Curated OER
Regents High School Exam: Living Environment 2008
Tne New York Regents High School Examinations are comprehensive and include various styles of questions, includingmultiple choice and the analysis of graphs. This particular version, the 2008 Living Environment exam surveys a variety of...
Curated OER
Monitoring River Levels
For this environmental science worksheet, learners read and study water maps from an interactive website to complete 8 short answer questions that follow.
Curated OER
Careers in Science Choose Your Own Adventure
Middle schoolers explore the types of careers that study of science subjects can lead to. They comprehend how to use resources for researching careers. Students become aware of the impact of science on their lives, becoming exposed to a...
Curated OER
WHAT MAKES OUR BLUE JEANS BLUE?
Twelfth graders become aware of the environmental, social and economic issues related to the production of blue jeans. They explore the relationship between individual clothing choices as well as global issues. In addition, they...
Curated OER
Watershed Landscape
Students demonstrate how water flows by building a human watershed using themselves. In this ecology lesson plan, students compare and contrast point-source and non-point source pollution. They write what they have learned from this...
Curated OER
Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining
To understand the impact coal mining has on the environment, pupils will extract chocolate chips from a cookie. Imagine the cookie is the environment and the chips are the coal. Instruct them to mine as many chips as they can, then have...
Teach Engineering
Get the Word Out at McDonald's!
To get the word out that the Great Pacific garbage patch (GPGP) contains millions of pounds of non-biodegrading plastics, individuals research the GPGP and write an article for a newsletter. Researchers present their facts in a way that...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Infectious Diseases Classroom Activity
Here is a different approach: emerging epidemiologists first go home to interview family on the topic of infectious disease. Then they come to class and view a video and PowerPoint that explore how climate change may increase the...
Curated OER
Exploring Biomes Lesson 1: Mapping Biomes
Environmental science learners examine satellite imagery of temperature, vegetation, precipitation, and productivity. They use these maps to understand how scientists divide the planet into major biomes. As part of a larger unit on...
Curated OER
The Coastal Ocean: Estuaries and Continental Shelves
Amazing high-quality satellite imagery, photos, informational graphs, and detailed diagrams comprise this presentation on the movement of estuaries and the continental shelf. Data used as an example is from The Chesapeake Bay and because...
Curated OER
Robo-Lobster
Introduce environmental science or engineering explorers to different forms of sampling. They read an article about "Robo-lobsters," lobsters being studied to help design robots that can used to sniff out pollution in ocean waters. The...
It's About Time
Is It Heredity or the Environment?
Himalayan rabbits are black when raised at low temperatures and white when raised at high temperatures. Young biologists participate in an experiment using seeds to demonstrate the ways the environment can influence an inherited...
Curated OER
Environmental Limitations
Seventh graders study the environmental factors that affect population growth. In this biology lesson, 7th graders create a city following certain criteria. They present their posters in class.
Curated OER
A Tree is a Friend
Fifth graders discover the value of trees in our society. In this ecosystem instructional activity, 5th graders read the book, A Tree is Nice, and discuss with classmates how trees are essential to our existence due to creating oxygen...
NASA
Hurricanes and Hot Towers with TRMM
Take cover because a wild presentation on hurricanes is about to make landfall in your classroom! An outstanding PowerPoint presentation is the centerpiece of this lesson. Not only does it provide information and photographs, but several...
NASA
Erosion and Landslides
A professional-quality PowerPoint, which includes links to footage of actual landslides in action, opens this moving activity. Viewers learn what conditions lead to erosion and land giving way. They simulate landslides with a variety of...
Kenan Fellows
Sustainability: Learning for a Lifetime – Soil
Do great gardeners really have green thumbs—or just really great soil? Environmental scholars discover what makes Earth's soil and soil quality so important through research and experimentation. Learners also develop an understanding of...
Curated OER
The Chesapeake Bay in Captain John Smith's Time
When Captain John Smith visited the Chesapeake Bay in the summer of 1608, what types of animals and habitats did he encounter? Your young historians will analyze primary source documents to answer this question, as well as compare the...
Carnegie Mellon University
International Perspectives to Climate Change 1
After a lecture about how the first industrial revolution triggered the path to climate change, your environmental studies class discusses what the impacts are. In a culminating activity, they get into groups and identify countries on a...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Humans and the Land
Art acts as inspiration for a conversation about human impact on the environment and creative writing. The class examines three pieces, looking for evidence of human impact on the landscape. They then write a first-person narrative, from...
Forest Foundation
Waste Not - Want Not
Recycling is the focus in the sixth of a nine-lesson series devoted to forest ecosystems. Class members read an article about the responsible use of natural resources and ways to reduce land fill.