Curated OER
Selecting the Tap: Water Safety
Examine water as a scarce natural resource instead of taking it for granted. Middle schoolers identify the traits of potable water, and research local water sources to determine if they are impaired or not.
Curated OER
Be Water Wise!
Rally your administration and facilities manager to let your class examine the water flow rates in different areas of the school. After the audit, the class researches opportunites for conserving water and writes a report or develops a...
SRI International
Science of Water
Water is crucial to survival. Scholars gain an appreciation for water by reading about it, learning about its atomic properties, and investigating its properties through six stations in a lab activity.
Curated OER
Water in the Biosphere
Environmental explorers examine the campus and take note of living organisms. Introduce them to the biosphere and the questions of the day: How much water can be found in the biosphere? A slide show helps you along, and even contains a...
Curated OER
Using Environmental Models to Determine the Effect of Acid Rain on an Ecosystem
Demonstrate to your middle school science learners how chalk breaks down in a weak acid. Discuss what affects acidic rain might have on ecosystems. Lab groups then choose one of two questions: "How does acid precipitation affect an...
Kenan Fellows
Sustainability: Learning for a Lifetime – The Importance of Water
Water is essential for life—and understanding the importance of clean drinking water is essential in understanding sustainability! Show your environmental science class the basics of water testing and treatment through a week-long...
Curated OER
9-12: The Movie, "A Civil Action," as a Legal/Environmental Science Case Study
Students analyze information to determine how they can help a community that has been affected by water contamination. In this environmental science lesson, students watch portions of the movie "A Civil Action" and discuss specific...
Marine Institute
Water Pollution
Sixth graders investigate the various types of pollutants found in water and ways to help prevent water pollution. Through a hands-on experiment, students create samples of polluted water by mixing water with vegetable oil, dirt, and...
Curated OER
Water Alchemy
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...
NASA
Cleaning Water
Give young scientists a new appreciation of fresh, clean drinking water. After learning about the ways astronauts recycle their air and water, your class will work in small groups creating and testing their very own water filtration...
Curated OER
Water Meter Reader
Junior high schoolers learn how to read a water meter, track their family water usage, and discuss the amount in class with other pupils. They will interpret real-world data and graph it. It is ideal for increasing awareness and...
Pulitzer Center
Exploring Downstream: Water Resources
The lack of clean water is a life-threatening plight for millions of people around the world. Through an extensive WebQuest, young environment or social studies classes compare our water availability to that of the cxitizens of Ethiopia,...
Curated OER
Determination of Phosphorus Content in River Water
Divide your chemistry or environmental science class into two groups. Each group tests water samples from a river for the concentration of phosphorus using a different method. With chemists, you can use this activity as they learn to use...
Salt River Project
How Do We Clean Polluted Water?
How do we clean up oil spills and other pollutants in the water? Explore water treatment strategies with a set of environmental science experiments. Groups remove oil from water, work with wastewater treatment, and perform a water...
Earth Day Network
Staying Green While Being Clean
Clean up the environment with a lesson that focuses on replacing hazardous cleaning supplies with green, environmentally-friendly products. Using a dirty patch of surface as a control area, kids clean other parts of various surfaces...
Kenan Fellows
Making Connections with Water Quality
What's in your water? And, why is water quality so important? Enhance your class's level of water appreciation through a lesson that demonstrates the necessity of water quality. Environmental enthusiasts explore the EPA's Clean Water...
California Academy of Science
Coral and Chemistry
Using cabbage juice as a pH indicator, future scientists explore the effect of increasing carbon dioxide on the pH of the ocean and relate it to the health of coral reefs. Ideal for an earth or environmental sciences course, this lesson...
Kenan Fellows
Letter Writing to Politicians on Environmental Issues
Let your voices be heard! Pupils research local and national environmental concerns using the Internet. Class members determine an issue they deem important and draft a letter to a local politician expressing their concern about the...
Kenan Fellows
Using Water Chemistry as an Indicator of Stream Health
Will this water source support life? Small groups test the chemistry of the water drawn from two different sources. They then compare the collected data to acceptable levels to draw conclusions about the health of the source. The...
Virginia Department of Education
Molar Heat of Fusion for Water
How can you describe heat of fusion in a way the class understands and relates the importance of this concept to present day issues? In this third lesson of the series, learners conduct an experiment, demonstrating the flow of heat...
Curated OER
Monitoring Estuarine Water Quality
Learners analyze water quality data from real data. In this environmental science lesson, students examine how salinity and dissolved oxygen affect the living organisms in the estuary. They interpret graphs to support or disprove a...
Curated OER
The Affect of Water Temperature on Living Organisms
Young scholars examine the environmental impact of global warming. For this environmental science lesson, students design and conduct an experiment about the effect of temperature on paramecia. They write a lab report about their...
Curated OER
Topics in Environmental Science
Students discover topics in environmental science. In this science lesson plan, students build a model to simulate the greenhouse effect and analyze and interpret data, especially the results of introducing pollutants into nature.
Curated OER
Water Holes to Mini-Ponds
Students compare two mini-ponds. In this environmental awareness lesson, students build two mini-ponds from water holes. Students add fertilizers to one and not to the other. The results are observed and compared. This could easily be...