Raise children's awareness about the importance of conservation with this hands-on science lesson. Start by breaking the class into groups and having them collect trash from around the school or local park. Students then use the provided...

The other "Three Rs" are covered in this lesson: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Over four weeks, conservationists collect data about waste in their own homes. They combine their findings with those of other students in order to analyze...

Students explore the ways to conserve our natural resources. In this recycling, reusing, and reducing lesson students read Dinosaurs to the Rescue and apply their findings to learning ways to conserve resources. Students complete a...

Students make plant pots out of newspaper as part of a recycle, reuse, and reduce lesson. In this recycling lesson, students fold a piece of newspaper to make a pot in which to start plants. They fill it with compost and plant seeds.

First graders participate in a simulation involving newspaper, food coloring, water, and more to observe the debarking process of producing wood. In this wood lesson plan, 1st graders also measure, and learn about reducing, reusing, and...

Learners plan healthy lunches and how to dispose of their lunch waste. In this pre-field trip instructional activity, students and teachers plan healthy, nutritious lunches to bring on a field trip. They also discuss how to sort their...

Students investigate the meaning of potable water and water reuse. They define water quality and quantity problems. They complete worksheets, a quiz and design a poster.

Students complete a unit that focuses on their school's waste production. They conduct a litter survey, collect the waste produced in their classroom for a week and generate a waste-audit, and identify how their school can minimize...

Students explore how an oil spill is contained and cleaned up. They investigate an oil absorbing polymer that is hydrophobic, absorbs up to 19 times its own weight in nonpolar liquids, floats on water, and can be reused or disposed of by...

Youngsters consider the amount of packaging used in manufacturing food and follow its travels through to the landfill. They brainstorm ways in which to reduce packaging and take a survey at home to evaluate ways they could reduce trash.

Small groups place sand and ice in a covered box, place the box in the sunlight, then observe as evaporation, condensation, and precipitation occur. These models serve as miniature water cycles and demonstrations of the three phases of...

Students evaluate the school's recycling and waste management practices. After analyzing current methods, teams develop a new recycling plan, and create a slideshow presentation. They present their proposals to the principal for...

Students expand their understanding of solid waste management. They examine the effects of packaging decisions. They study engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management.

Students understand the process of recycling. They investigate how it improves the environment. They read the story "Don't Pollute" by Stan and Jan Berenstein. They analyze trash and sort it into bins.

Students experiment with recycling paper. In this paper recycling lesson, students conduct an experiment in which they dissolve newspaper in water and cornstarch to make new pieces of paper. They add color or flowers to the new paper to...

Students discover the benefits of recycling by participating in a group activity.  In this environmental care lesson, students analyze trash bins and discover new uses for items to be thrown away.  Students read the book What...

Students participate in group activities about the concepts of reducing, reusing and recycling. They read a poem, demonstrate recycling, reusing and reducing, and work in a small group to present a play.

After reading "Aquatic Alchemy," an article about recapturing water for reuse when in space, your class will use calcium hydroxide or hydrated lime to purify cloudy water. Geared toward high school chemistry or environmental science...

Juvenile geologists drill clear plastic straws down into a playdough sedimentary rock model, pulling out sample rock cores. As they analyze their cores, they apply the law of superposition and discover that originally horizontal layers...

From their sweat to the water vapor in their breath, astronauts recycle every possible drop of water while in space. After watching a short video describing the different ways materials are recycled and reused in space...

Many young people act globally by reducing, reusing, and recycling, Now they take it to the next level by upcycling. Middle schoolers design a proposal to eliminate waste by exploring the new material cycle and applying...

Students describe ways in which solid waste was disposed in the past and the present. They survey an older citizen about his/her solid waste disposal methods. They discover solid waste practices from long ago.

Students identify types of garbage that will decompose quickly and the ones that do not.  In this decomposing lesson students observe and record the photo degrading of six pack rings. 

Young scholars discover what a Carbon Footprint represents. In this sustainable lifestyle instructional activity, students determine their Carbon Footprint as an individual and as a class. Young scholars use a the Internet to...