Curated OER
Environmental Law
Learners analyze the environmental impact of pollution. They demonstrate an understanding of law, punishment and enforcement. Applying their knowledge, they create their own anti-pollution laws.
Curated OER
Companion to Superfund -- The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Program
Students examine the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. They work together to discover how their local community handles waste disposal. They complete a worksheet to end the lesson.
Curated OER
Caution: Fix It!
Students explore the concept of environmental stewardship. In this science lesson, students investigate events that have harmed coastal resources and how human activity has restored coastal resources.
Curated OER
Celebrating Earth Day
Learners explore environmental safety by planting seeds outside their classroom. In this Earth Day lesson, students identify the different ways to recycle and conserve resources on Earth while facilitating recycling bins around campus....
Curated OER
Making Recycled Paper
Students explore the advantages of recycling paper. In this environmental lesson plan, students produce recycled paper by ripping up paper and putting it into a blender with water to create a mixture. Students use their recycled paper to...
Carnegie Mellon University
Marcellus Shale: Who Pays?
After viewing short clips of unfortunate events, your class will consider two sides of a homeowner's court case, and then learn about the Marcellus shale deposit beneath the state of Pennsylvania and the hydraulic fracturing process. In...
Curated OER
Save the Grove!
Love this idea for a lesson! Learners try to save a grove of trees from development. While the resource provides detailed instructions to aid learners' understanding of trees and their importance. It does not include a plan for using...
Curated OER
Environmental Benefits of Recycling
Fourth graders understand the benefits of recycling. In this recycling literacy lesson, 4th graders read an article and identify the main idea. Students understand the process of transfer to the landfill and discuss how recycling helps...
Global Oneness Project
The Value of Ancient Traditions
Imagine having to give up cell phones, computers, and TV? What would be lost? What gained? An examination of the Drokpa, a nomadic people who live in the grasslands of Tibet, provides class members an opportunity to consider how access...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Living Environment 2009
Emerging ecologists need a full understanding of life, from the inner workings of a cell to the complex relationships among organisms. This examination is meant to assess high schoolers after an entire year course on the living...
Beyond Benign
Essential Oil Extraction Using Liquid CO2
When life hands you lemons ... experiment on them! Green chemistry gurus compare extraction methods for essential oils through a lab activity. Lab groups use traditional distillation and liquid carbon dioxide extraction...
Curated OER
Weather, Climate and Environmental Change
Learners study the complexities for getting definitive answers for past and present happenings in our environment. They discover past global changes on earth and the evidence for why these changes took place before believing everything...
Curated OER
Natural Resources: Getting a Fair Share?
Students explore the impact of human behavior on key components of the environment, examine how theirn own personal decisions have added to the problem, and explore possible solutions to the current ecological crisis.
Curated OER
Environmental Science/Water Pollution
Students study natural habitats, aquatic life, renewable and non-renewable resources. They discuss conservation efforts for sea otters and desert toad in this units.
Curated OER
Limited Resources - Understanding Our Cultural Resources
Young scholars examine and compare preserving natural resources and preserving cultural resources. They conduct Internet research on two topics, and write a position paper on whether cultural resources or natural resources are more...
Curated OER
Mining for Natural Resources
Students discover that mining for nonrenewable natural resources has a dramatic effect on our environment. They gain an understanding of the processes involved in harvesting a natural resource and the impact it has on the earth.
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...
San José State University
Organizational Patterns for the Comparison/Contrast Essay
Organization is key in essay writing. The two organizational charts included in this resource model the block approach and the point-by-point approach to organizing a compare and contrast style essay. After examining the...
Global Oneness Project
Bearing Witness
A controversial construction project in South America, the Belo Monte dam, is endangering local cultures, ecosystems, and communities. High schoolers create a concept map based on an online article they read before engaging in...
Curated OER
Conservation of Energy
Fifth graders examine their use of energy over a certain time period. They come up with a plan to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Groups of learners complete a chart with three columns; energy-using events, the form...
Dream of a Nation
Congressional Debate
Should junk food be banned in schools? Should the US open its borders to all immigrants? Should the US impose term limits for the House of Representatives and for the Senate? Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: “The Everglades” by Campbell McGrath
Florida's Everglades come alive for young environmental scientists as they watch a video taken in the park and read a poem about the watery paradise. After a careful study of the two resources, class members consider the function of the...
Curated OER
You Can Depend On me
Discover the natural beauty of California. With a conservation bent, this activity delves into some of the attributes that make this state unique. Learners discuss Yosemite and the forest habitat. They focus on the things plants and...
National Park Service
What Can We Do?
Motivate young conservationists to stand up and make a change. After learning about the efforts in Cascade Nation Park to reduce carbon emissions in order to preserve the wilderness, students work in groups creating action plans for...