Curated OER
Native Species Restoration and its Impact on Local Populations
For this native species restoration worksheet, students are given 3 scenarios to choose from to help restore a declining population of an endangered species of deer. Students make predictions about what they will think happen when the...
Curated OER
Energy Crisis and Energy Alternatives
In this energy crisis and energy alternatives worksheet, students fill in the blanks of sentences when given terms related to the environment, the energy crisis, renewable resources and non-renewable resources.
Curated OER
Overpopulation
Students examine population growth and how it impacts our environment. In this population lesson plan students identify the causes and consequences of overpopulation.
Curated OER
Winter Survival
Students examine what animals need in order to survive. In this investigative lesson students play a "role" of an animal in winter.
Curated OER
My Friend, the Volcano
Working in cooperative groups, young scientists research and report on how undersea volcanic activity may benefit marine ecosystems. There are many links to websites that you can use to stimulate curiosity or for pupils to use for...
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
Finding, Gathering, Saving Seeds
Students understand the importance of saving seeds. In this saving seeds lesson, students dry out seeds for later use planting. Students recognize that one plant may have many seeds.
Forest Foundation
Forest Health
Young foresters examine the strategies, like prescribed burns and thinning, that are employed to ensure healthy forests.
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Arctic Smorgasbord
Though the walrus spends roughly one third of its time on land, it eats organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. The first in a series of five, the lesson uses a variety of plant and animal cards to have scholars build an arctic...
Curated OER
Sustainability
Here is an in-depth, and incredibly thorough lesson plan on sustainable agricultural practices; specifically, regarding the growth of coffee. After completing and discussing a worksheet called "Thinking About Tomorrow," groups of...
Pennsylvania State University
Learn, Protect, and Promote Water
A hands-on activity helps learners explore the water cycle. After discussing how they use water, classes discuss water pollution and then move into a simulation where 20 pupils move through the water cycle based on description cards.
Curated OER
Plants and Animals
Seventh graders discover the interconnectedness of plants and animals in ecosystems. In groups, they create a food web and discuss the problems when one link of the chain is broken. To end the lesson, they set up a balanced environment...
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Eyes on Dissolved Oxygen
Learn about the factors that affect the way oxygen dissolves in salt water with a chemistry lab. After studying the molecular structure of water, young scientists figure out how aeration, temperature, and organic waste affect...
Curated OER
Investigative Case - "Swampeast Missouri"
Students explore wetland hydrology and biology and decide whether or not to restore a wetland or retain dams and drainage systems. They examine the complexity of decisions regarding wetland restoration as well as investigate viewpoints...
Curated OER
Forest Fun
Students explore orienteering and how to use a compass. They explore the importance of forests and identify some of the trees in a local forest.
Curated OER
Spaceship Earth
Students develop an understanding of our planet as a system by designing a very-long-duration space mission in which the life-support system is patterned after that of earth.
Curated OER
Urban Ecosystems 4: Metabolism of Urban Ecosystems
Middle schoolers discover that material and energy uses by a city come from outside the city boundaries. They realize that the pathway of these material is linear instead of cyclical as they are in natural ecosystems.
Curated OER
Urban Ecosystems 2: Why Are There Cities? A Historical Perspective
Middle schoolers investigate the importance of food surpluses to the historical development of urban ecosystems.
Curated OER
Photosynethsis....How do we know it's really happening? - Biology Teaching Thesis
High schoolers think of one way to detect photosynthesis in plants besides those ways shown in class. They identify the reaction that occurs during photosynthesis. Students define the difference between an acid and a base. They identify...
Curated OER
Assessing Risks for Inhalation and Ingestion of Pollutants
Young scholars use a hypothetical scenario to investigate inhalation of an airborne pollutant and ingestion of a waterborne pollutant. They work in pairs, investigating differences in overall exposure to contaminants by calculating...
Curated OER
Prairie Scavenger Hunt
Middle schoolers take a close look at the prairie environment. They identify common plants and animals of the prairie. In addition, pupils work in teams in order to put together a presentation on a certain aspect of the prairie...
Curated OER
Spring
Students examine lichens in an outside field trip. Students explore the diversity of this organism and ask questions about them.
Curated OER
Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
Curated OER
Solid Waste and Recycling
Students demonstrate effects of waste on environment and ways of reducing it, observe how much packaging goes into bag lunches each day, and survey their families to assess awareness levels and household recycling practices. Lessons all...