Curated OER
The Global Warming Debate and the Arctic Ice Cap
In this global warming and the Arctic ice cap worksheet, students use two graphs showing data about the amount of Arctic sea ice between 1950 and 2006 and the percent of people surveyed that believe the Earth has gotten warmer over the...
Curated OER
Global Warming Statistics
Students research real-time and historic temperature data of U.S. and world locations, and analyze the data using mean, median, and mode averages. They graph the data and draw conclusions by analyzing the data. A spreadsheet is used to...
Curated OER
High School EcoHouse Curriculum
How has the level of carbon dioxide changed over recent years, and what is contributing it? Groups work together to research and present their findings in a creative way. Also built into the lesson is a visit to a sustainable house, but...
Curated OER
Scientific Investigation of Sea Ice Thickness
Students study the importance of global ocean currents, sea water chemistry, and cultural issues surrounding sea ice. In the field, students travel to the floe edge with their teacher and an elder to drill holes in the ice and measure...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Coral Reefs in Hot Water
Global warming is leaving coral reefs in hot water. What does that mean for their survival? Find out as scholars use authentic satellite data to explore the issue. Learners look for global trends in the data and research the effects the...
Curated OER
Current Weather
A great year around activity that shows young mathematicians how the math skills they are learning are actually used in the real world. This exercise also helps learners begin to distinguish the difference between weather and climate. As...
Curated OER
The Mathematics of Convection: Nature's Model for Energy Production
High schoolers conduct a series of experiments to investigate density, buoyancy and climate. In this math instructional activity, pupils design and build a hot air balloon to demonstrate convection. They research and write a paper about...
Curated OER
Epidemic Proportions
Students research epidemics that have devastated world population at various points in history. They share and calculate statistics obtained in their research and develop graphs comparing and contrasting how different epidemics affect...
Curated OER
Historical Climate Statistics
Are we getting hotter? Let’s look at a sample locality where historical records exist and see what we can find out. Here is an activity that has young environmentalists plotting the average winter temperature in England from 900-1900. It...
Curated OER
Golf and Divorce
There seems to be an interesting relationship between the increasing numbers of golf courses and divorce. Assess student understanding of correlation and causation by asking them to explain what it is. Use this short activity as a class...
Curated OER
How Many Is Too Many?
Learners explore the population explosion. They view a video depicting the exponential growth of human population. Students research the internet to project future population data. They perform hands-on, multimedia activities to study...
Wake Forest University
Authentic Activities for Connecting Mathematics to the Real World
Check out the handout from a presentation that contains a collection of high school algebra projects connecting a variety of mathematics to the real world. Activities range from simple probabilities to calculus. The activities can be...
Curated OER
What's in the News?
Students discuss any news article or video about the environment. They develop their own questions relating to radon and how it effects people and the environment. They answer each others questions to end the lesson.