Chicago Botanic Garden
Calculating Your Carbon Footprint
Unplugging from technology for one day per week will decrease your carbon footprint—are you up to the challenge? Part two in a series of three allows individuals to explore their personal carbon footprints. By first taking a quiz at home...
Kenan Fellows
Electricity: Sources, Usage, Challenges, and the Future
What does the future of energy look like? Junior engineers collaborate to discover a solution to the global energy crisis during a very hands-on lesson. The unit focuses on learning through collaboration to develop a deep understanding...
NOAA
Exploring Potential Human Impacts
Arctic sea ice reflects 80 percent of sunlight, striking it back into space; with sea ice melting, the world's oceans become warmer, which furthers global warming. These activities explore how humans are impacting ecosystems around the...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
How does climate change affect you? First in a three-part series, the activity focuses on how individuals living around the world are affected by climate change. Individuals take on the role of a given character and share their...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Evolution Begins with the Inheritance of Gene Variations
Connect Mendelian genetics with Darwinian theories. An interactive lesson lets pupils explore how George Shull used research from other scientists to explore genetic variation. The resource outlines the statistical analysis of genetic...
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...
Teach Engineering
Working Together to Live Together
Whose home is it anyway? Design teams plan a housing development in which they must also protect a native species. The teams consist of a project manager, civil engineer, environmental engineer, and graphic designer. Teams present their...
Intel
Biomes in Action
A STEM project-based learning lesson, number four in a series of 10, focuses on human impacts to biomes around the world. Groups work together as environmentalists to research a specific biome, investigating human impacts on it. From...
NOAA
The Incredible Carbon Journey: Play the Carbon Journey Game
Class members explore the carbon cycle in the final installment of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series. They play a simulation game where they walk through the steps carbon takes as it cycles through the different layers...
K12 Reader
Endangered Species
Your learners have likely heard about animals going extinct. By reading this passage, they can find out some reasons why this happens and how to protect endangered species. After reading, individuals respond to five related questions.
Curated OER
Hazards: Fifth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
After comparing earthquake and volcanic hazards to one another, fifth graders take a closer look at damage associated with a volcanic eruption. They then create a simulation of mudslides due to a volcanic eruption. Using different...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Personal Choices and the Planet
How big is your footprint? Activity three culminates the series by having groups complete carbon footprint audits with people in their schools and/or around the districts. Groups then gather their data, create a presentation including...
Royal Society of Chemistry
The Treatment of Oil Spills—Microscale Chemistry
When oil spills happen, how is the oil cleaned up? Pupils of polymer science discover an amazing substance that turns oil into a solid during a microscale experiment. Individuals observe oil or paraffin before and after addition of the...
Curated OER
Prairie Plant Investigation
Students carefully observe prairie plants and record their observations in a science journal. They examine the root systems of grasses and flowers and surmise how these plants can grow together on the prairie.
Curated OER
HABITAT for the other 90%
Learners examine the connection between the habitat needs of endemic species to the habitat needs of humans. In this habitat instructional activity students research the habitat requirements of a given family then develop an idea...
Curated OER
Life is Weird
Separate your science class into small groups and assign each a specific deep-sea organism to research. The class will learn about all of the organisms as each group presents their assigned animal. Following their presentations, you can...
Curated OER
Abstract Painting - Inspired By Textiles
Sixth graders compare and contrast various forms of artistic expression. They create an abstract painting.
Curated OER
Prairie Senses
Second graders use their senses to explore a prairie or imaginary prairie. They draw pictures to represent the five senses and discover how an artist describes non-visual sensations in a visual way.
Curated OER
Seasonal Changes
Students research seasonal changes and how they affect the environment. Completing a nature walk, they observe plants and animals and record the information in a graph. They also write summaries of the results of their research.
Curated OER
Diverse Societies in Africa
Early African society was shaped by environment and geography. Define the life ways of early African societies with this informative presentation. Topics are basic and only touch lightly on the complex nature of the subject matter.
Curated OER
What Shape is That?
Each country or group of people has created special places of worship. Children read a story about religious buildings and architecture and then make clay models of the buildings they like the best. The lesson has been written to...
Curated OER
Which Animal Lives Where?
Use this lesson in your classroom for a quick and easy way to review animal habitats. Young children use magazine clippings, pictures provided, or other resources to create a collage depicting an animal habitat. This is a great way to...
Teach Engineering
Introduction to Environmental Engineering
A series on environmental engineering introduces the class to issues that environmental engineers work to solve. This first lesson focuses on air and land issues, and looks at ways to reduce pollution.
Curated OER
Understanding Ecosystems: Erosion and Flooding
Pupils study the balance in the environment needed for ecosystems. They discuss what can lead to erosion and flooding.