National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Chemicals in Your Home
Many people know about chemical pollution, but are all chemicals bad? The third unit in a series of six addresses chemicals common in everyday life. Scholars learn about the chemicals found in their own homes, chemical safety, and...
Beyond Benign
Solubility
Enhance your class' ability to understand solubility. Science scholars examine how temperature and concentration affect solubility using an interesting lab experiment. The introduction and procedure also discuss the relationship between...
Beyond Benign
SLS Today
Lather is not necessary for an effective shampoo. After learning of the industry created consumer misinformation, individuals investigate the toxicity of the most popular additive in shampoos to create lather. They use their results to...
Beyond Benign
Solvent Snapshot
Discover the properties and purpose of chemical solvents. Continuing with the theme of shampoo ingredients, the 10th lesson of this 24-part series investigates the choice of solvents in shampoos. Through their exploration, they learn how...
Beyond Benign
Water Waste
Explore the process of wastewater treatment. Scholars analyze different samples of water before drawing conclusions about the types of chemicals in the water that leaves our homes.
Just Health Action
Whose Backyard? Toxic Waste Management Meeting and Environmental Injustice
Toxic waste is a global problem. What to do with environmental hazards and where to put toxic waste is a global concern. To better understand current issues around toxic waste management and how current practices can lead to...
Royal Society of Chemistry
Lead Compounds: Precipitation Reactions and Pigments—Microscale Chemistry
Colorful lead compounds never fail to impress! Solubility scholars examine a series of double replacement reactions involving lead nitrate and record their observations. The second part of the experiment illustrates the differences...
Beyond Benign
The Green Zine
It's time for your class to advertise what they've learned! The culminating lesson in the 24-part series asks scholars to use their newfound chemistry knowledge to create advertisements. Their magazine advertisements describe the health...
Beyond Benign
In Your Bathroom
How toxic is your shampoo? The 20th instructional activity of the chemistry series of 24 examines the ingredients in common shampoos. Learners tally the number of toxic ingredients and create graphical representations to communicate...
Beyond Benign
Daphnia Bioassay LD50
De-icing materials may have a harmful effect on our environment; have your class perform an experiment to test the nature of these effects. Scholars monitor the survival rate of a sample of daphnia as the concentration of a de-icing...
Polar Trec
Why Can’t I Eat This Fish?
Can turning on the television lead to toxins in the food supply? The lesson offers an opportunity for young scientists to complete guided research. A worksheet lists each question as well as the web page necessary to answer the question....
Polar Trec
Bioaccumulation of Toxins
In 2015, Peter Cook found that sea lions with high levels of exposure to toxins suffered permanent brain damage if they survived at all. Scholars learn about the accumulation of toxins at various levels of the food chain. Using...
NOAA
Toxic! Or Is It?
Super scientists tests the toxicity of water using radish seed bioassays. Over the course of five days, scholars observe the germination process of several radish seeds, looking closely at their roots to determine the level of toxins...
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Don't Mess with Mercury (Lesson A)
Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature. Teach your class this and many more interesting mercury facts by assigning an engaging task. A public relations activity, the exercise informs pupils of the hazards of...
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Don't Mess with Mercury (Lesson C)
The health effects of mercury exposure if the focus of the first of three activities about the properties of metals. Pairs research mercury to write, prepare, and share posters, articles, or PSAs with the class.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Pesky Plastics: The Problem with Plastic
What can happen to the environment if plastic continues to pollute it? Learners read about the implications of plastic on health, water, and nature in a two-page reading passage. After they finish reading, they work on six comprehension...
NOAA
Seafood and Human Health
Whether your young biologists realize it or not, humans play a significant role in marine ecosystems. To help them understand this fact children first create graphical representations that show homo sapiens' place in marine food chains,...
Curated OER
Burn Barrel Biology
Students explore burn barrels and discuss alternatives to burning trash. In this burn barrel lesson plan, students learn about the toxic chemicals and waste that happens in a burn barrel and how it is harmful to humans and animals.
Curated OER
Electronics: Wants or Needs?
Third graders determine how electronics negatively impact the environment. For this environmental lesson, 3rd graders read the article "Earth Friendly Waste Management", and identify how recycling impacts our environment. Students...
Curated OER
Environmental Problems and Solutions
In this environmental problems and solutions worksheet, students are given a list of 25 environmental problems. They match them with a given solution and paste the matching pairs to a piece of construction paper.
Curated OER
Toxic River
Students explore environmental safety by participating in a class game. For this toxic chemicals lesson, students discuss the effect chemicals have on our environment and how to best protect against their dangers. Students participate in...
Curated OER
Subsurface Contamination of Groundwater
Students watch a demonstration with a balloon filled with water being buried in a milk container that has been cut length wise and filled with sand. Students are told that there is an underground storage tank filled with a contaminate...