Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Living in a Healthy Environment: The Pleasures of Life

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students describe their home environment and how to keep it healthy. They discuss way in which they can make their environment healthy.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science: What Is the Carbon Cycle?

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students examine the carbon cycle while identifying its sources, sinks, and release agents. Using magazines and newspapers, groups of students design collages illustrating the carbon cycle. Finally, they write responses to several...
Lesson Plan
Carnegie Mellon University

Natural Gas and Pennsylvania’s Future

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Beginning with a general discussion about natural gas, methane, and hydrocarbons, a few videos and diagrams are projected to support the lecture. Individuals participate in a brief activity by drinking juice through a straw, and then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Powering a Green Earth

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students compare and contrast renewable and nonrenewable energy. In this environmental science lesson, students discuss the importance of going green. They identify the different components in a power grid system.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Web of Life - Ecosystem

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders play the roles of various organisms in an ecosystem (focusing on insects) and pass yarn or string around to other organisms from largest animals to the smallest. The end product is a web which shows how all of these animals...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Ecosystems 5: In Defense Of Cities

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explain that while cities have unattractive features, the density of human life enables energy efficiency, mass transit, recycling, and other benefits which are difficult or impossible in rural areas. This is the fifth in an...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Forms of Energy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers complete a series of activities related to forms of energy. In this energy instructional activity, students look at forms of energy in their school, how energy is conserved and used efficiently, how magnets are used to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My View's Write!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
After researching issues involving panthers, middle schoolers practice writing persuasive letters.  They  become familiar with a controversial issue related to panthers and write their position on the issue. This lesson...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Acid in the Water

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders learn about the effect pollution has on water and how this affects their community. In this environmental awareness instructional activity, 9th graders expand their vocabulary and create a flowchart that...
Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Human Impact on the Food Web of Santa Cruz Island

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What happens when a non-native species is introduced onto an island? Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Island chain located off the coast of southern California, provides the perfect laboratory for young environmental scientists to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Your Trash, My Treasure

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars create their own sculpture representing the idea of environmental responsibility and recycling. In this science lesson, students observe Les Constellations des Voisines du Pole by Joseph Cornell, make...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oceanography

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders use scientific skills and processes to recognize how living things depend on one another and on the environment for survival and that the human use of natural resources impacts the environment. They research how Earth's...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Biomes

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders use scientific skills and processes to recognize how living things depend on one another and on the environment for survival and the human use of natural resources impacts the environment. Explain how Earth's surface...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Modeling Changes to Ecosystems Pt. 2

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students explore the environment by creating a poster. In this ecosystem protection lesson, students analyze a list of vocabulary terms associated with the scientific method. Students create a poster which answers a specific question...
Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Oh Heron

For Teachers 4th
Two teams—the environmentalists and herons—play four rounds of the game, Oh Heron. Using hand symbols to represent food, shelter, and water, players locate their match to produce more herons while those unmatched decompose. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

De-composers - Terrarium

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Learners explore the environment by building a mock ecosystem. In this rainforest analysis lesson, students define many environmental and rainforest related vocabulary terms and discuss the current status of our planet's rainforests....
Lesson Plan
Kenan Fellows

Using Water Chemistry as an Indicator of Stream Health

For Teachers 8th - 12th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where Do I Belong?

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders study the diversity of life in the world. They classify and sketch organisms into the 6 kingdoms.
Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

Adaptation and Evolution

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Um may be the atomic symbol for confusion, but it won't be needed in this lesson. Scholars rotate through seven stations completing experiments, hands-on activities, writing exercises, and analysis. Stations include material on...
Lesson Plan
Global Oneness Project

Resiliency Among the Salmon People

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Is losing cultural traditions the cost of social progress, or should people make stronger efforts to preserve these traditions? High schoolers watch a short film about the native Yup'ik people in Alaska and how they handle the shifts in...
Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

Evidence of Evolution

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What an impression fossils make! In this activity, aspiring paleontologists view fossils and construct a timeline to further understand how the lack of natural adaptation caused historical organisms to become extinct. While they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Biodiversity Via Ecological Footprints

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders investigate the ways in which human beings impact the environment and ecology through the calculation of their own ecological footprint, discussion questions pertaining to biodiversity and potential imbalance hazards, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Deep Gardens

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students compare and contrast deep-sea coral reefs with shallow-water coral reefs. For this underwater ecology lesson, students describe three types of coral and explain why scientists are concerned about the future of deep-sea coral.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Careers Lessons 2 - How Can I Get There from Here?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers identify differences between jobs and careers, and identify career areas within the broad field of oceanography. They research, compare and contrast requirements needed to become a practitioner of various oceanographic...