Curated OER
Environmental Changes
High school scientists reasearch and illustrate changes in the local environment and consider relationships among agriculture, industry, economy, natural events, and social interactions. They construct a timeline to discover if there are...
Curated OER
Down in the Dumps
After an introduction to municipal sludge, middle school ecologists consider the pros and cons of dumping in the Hudson River Canyon. The class is split into two groups: one to debate in favor or dumping and one to debate against the...
National Gardening Association
Migration Mishaps
Elementary ecologists pretend to be migratory hummingbirds. They fly between wintering and nesting grounds, trying to reach a habitat haven. In a musical-chair fashion, some birds will miss out, and are removed from the game. To further...
Curated OER
Ourselves
Students identify the main parts of the human body. They point to various parts of their own body, cut out pictures of humans and animals and sort them into the two categories, discuss the differences between animals and humans, and...
Curated OER
Taking the Human Rights Temperatutre of Your School
Students evaluate their school's human rights climate using criteria derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They discuss the results and develop a plan of action to begin addressing the problems they find.
WindWise Education
Are Birds Impacted by Small Wind Turbines?
How do we know if the wind turbine at our school is impacting birds? Here, small groups work together and conduct field work in order to determine the impact of a human-made structure on birds. The groups also determine their searcher...
Curated OER
School Redesign and Multiple Intelligences
Students examine their own intelligence to find areas of strength after studying the multiple intelligences. For this diverse learning styles lesson, students analyze how the school environment fosters or fails students of diverse...
Curated OER
"Circles of Strength: What Do You Stand For?" ~ A Reflection of Us~
Middle schoolers determine how they are included in "Circles of Strength." In this character activity, students reflect on how they are part of "Circles of Strength" in the "Circle of Life." They make an individual circle that includes...
Nature Works Everywhere
Sustainable Cities
Investigate aspects of sustainable cities and relate them to where you live! A detailed lesson plan first investigates the definition of sustainability. Learners then explore human impact on the environment and social justice. Their...
Curated OER
Human or Natural?
Students explore nature by participating in a class lab activity. In this human vs. nature lesson, students examine a group of items in their classroom and discuss whether they were created naturally or have been altered or created by...
Curated OER
Air and Water in the Environment
Second graders participate in a three part lesson in which they identify and describe forms of moisture in the environment. Part one of the lesson involves the three stages of the water cycle, part two focuses on creating humidity by...
Curated OER
Understanding the Indoor Environment: Word Walls
Students study vocabulary words about indoor air quality. In this indoor environment lesson, students create a word wall with vocabulary words about indoor air quality and pollutants.
Curated OER
Hazardous Chemicals? Not in my Water!
Students reflect on the effects of their actions on the environment. In this community service instructional activity, students investigate the hazardous quality of products within their homes. Student educate their families and...
Curated OER
Stanley Park and Aquarium Field Trip
Students explore the beauty of British Columbia by participating in a class field trip. In this ecosystem observation instructional activity, students investigate the Vancouver Aquarium and Stanley Park, one of the largest parks in North...
Curated OER
Image Classification
Students explore what are "multi-spectral" or "multi-band" images? They investigate how landscapes change over time- at least over the time-span of satellite imagery, particulary due to human influences. Students explore how to train...
Curated OER
Managing Wildlife
Students explore the relationship between wildlife and humans in northern New England. They also brainstorm ideas on why they think some species are greater in population than others in a given area.
Curated OER
Think Green
THINKGREEN has a computer printer cartridge collection program. After reading the story of how Assumption Secondary School in Burlington, Ontario started participating in the THINKGREEN recycling program, pupils work in groups of...
Curated OER
Understanding the Indoor Environment
Students create and deliver speeches about why their school should have an Indoor Air Quality team. In this speeches lesson plan, students make presentations to school board members about having an IAQ team.
Curated OER
Inside Outside: Habitats and Human Organ Systems
Pupils examine the way habitats and human organ systems function. In groups, they role play the role of a government group assigned to determine if a settlement can make their home in a specific area. They must discover how humans and...
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...
Curated OER
Litter From Lunchtime
Learners explore environmental care by participating in a litter identification activity. In this food trash lesson, students discuss the destruction litter causes in our environment and ways we can avoid littering ourselves. Learners...
Kenan Fellows
Let's Learn About Stewardship and River Basins
What does it mean to be a good steward? Middle school environmentalists learn to care for their state's waterways through research, a guest speaker, and poster activity. Groups must locate and learn more about a river basin and the human...
National Park Service
Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, Let’s Compost!
Roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty with this elementary and middle school compost lesson. All you need is a large plastic container, a couple old newspapers, some organic waste, and a few hundred worms and you're ready...
Ontario
Informed Citizenship—Civil Rights
To launch a study of civil rights, class members brainstorm rules and expectations of behaviors at home, in school, in the workplace, and in sports. They then look at civil rights cases and examine the rules embedded in these cases.