Curated OER
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
What a great way to review information your class has learned about recycling and the environment! Learners can play the game Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to reinforce information they have learned about the earth and the environment.
Curated OER
Landfills and Dumps
For this environmental issues worksheet, students learn about sanitary landfills and dumps by reading a one page information text. Students also study the cross section of a landfill. There are no questions to answer.
Curated OER
Bottled Water Ban
Convenience, taste, portability ... what's not to love about bottled water? Apparently, a lot. Scholars analyze the four main arguments supporting and opposing the sale of bottled water. They explore the health, environmental, and...
Wilderness Classroom
Pollution
Educate scholars on pollution—air, water, and land—with a series of lessons that begin with a thorough explanation of each type. Learners then take part in three activities to reinforce the importance of reducing pollution. They...
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...
Curated OER
Our Landfill Future
Students use the internet to research articles on garbage, landfills and the environment. In groups, they identify ways to conserve or recycle materials found in landfills and determine the future of a local landfill. They share their...
Curated OER
Edible Landfill
Learners investigate landfills. In this edible landfill instructional activity, students replicate the structure sanitary landfills as they use the listed foods to build a model.
Curated OER
All About Aluminum
Students examine the metal aluminum. In this metal properties lesson, students experiment to distinguish between aluminum and other metals. Students assess how aluminum is created and recycled.
Curated OER
Recycling: The Way to Save...Fad or Fact
Students write stories about recycling and illustrate them. They examine various containers and determine whether or not they are recyclable. They make a chart about the containers and visit a recycling center.
Curated OER
The Water We Drink
Third graders relate that the quality of their drinking water is subject to the condition of the environment and water found in streams and creeks in their community. They track the travel of a wad of paper from a student's desk to a...
SF Environment
Waste-Less Lunch
Is it possible to have a waste-less lunch? Can your class become leaders in conservation? Discuss the importance of reducing waste during lunch time with a fun lesson that can be extended to everyday practices. First the class examines...
Curated OER
Pollution
Young ecologists investigate some of the many ways that human activities adversely affect the environment. After identifying the main types of pollution (air, water, soil), 3rd graders fill in a Venn Diagram by pasting cut-out pictures...
Cal Recycle
Conserving Natural Resources
Trying to plan an engaging elementary science unit on natural resources? Conserve your energy! This five-part series of lessons and hands-on activities has exactly what you need to teach young scholars about the importance of conservation.
Curated OER
Garbage Dump
Students are introduced to landfills and the importance of reducing garbage. In this Earth Day lesson, students collect garbage they find on the ground. They take it back to a plastic bin and attempt to bury all the garbage only to find...
Curated OER
Being Resource-ful
Learners compare the amount of waste that comes from different bags of equivalent amounts of potato chips and decide which would produce the least amount of waste. They discuss recycling and other ways they can reduce waste.
Curated OER
Spanish Lessons on Waste
Students investigate waste. In this environmental lesson, students read a worksheet in both Spanish and English and share how they recycle at home. Students are encouraged to use key vocabulary words from the worksheet such as "recycle"...
Curated OER
Talkin' Trash
Use these lesson plans to illustrate the effects of trash on our environment and the ways in which we dispose of it.
Curated OER
Get to Know Glass
Students learn about the properties of glass. In this making and molding glass lesson, students participate in an experiment where they will learn how glass is created and how it is shaped to create bottles and jars. Students also...
Curated OER
Toxic Transmission
Students read article, "Toxic Transmission" and discuss technology pollution, specifically cell phone pollution and its ripple effects in other parts of the world.
Curated OER
Packaging
In this environmental awareness lesson, students discuss packaging and the importance of using recycled materials in their packaging. Students bring in all sorts of items from home, and brainstorm ways that those items could have been...
Captain Planet Foundation
Worm Your Way Out of This
How can you provide healthy soil for your garden? Study worms, bacteria, and other microorganisms in a instructional activity about decomposition and organic compost. After discussing what you know about worms and watching a video, watch...
Curated OER
Nature's Recyclers
Pupils create environments to demonstrate how earthworms interact with their surroundings.
Curated OER
Making a Mini-Landfill
Students create a mini-version of a landfill. They examine the materials they use everyday and determine if they decompose or not. They identify the materials as renewable or nonrenewable as well.
Curated OER
Garbage Pizza
Learners examine amount of garbage disposed of by average household weekly, classify different categories of garbage and describe composition of landfills, investigate what happens to waste after it is collected by garbage trucks, and...