Curated OER
Forests and Treescapes with Romey Stuckart
High schoolers discuss Romey Stuckart's painting, "The Cedar," paint a tempera or acrylic picture of a forest or treescape, using overlapping shapes, intense hues, and heavy brush textures, and discuss managed forest techniques preserve...
Curated OER
Why do we need Vitamin C in our diet? Or Why do we carry old inactive genes in our genome?
Students explore and explain how mutations in the DNA sequence of a gene may be silent or result in phenotypic change in an organism and in its offspring. They analyze how evolution and biodiversity are the result of genetic changes that...
Curated OER
What Critters Tell Us About Water Quality: A Macroinvertebrate Lesson
Students explore our ecosystem by investigating the quality of our water. In this aquatic insect lesson, students examine a group of random insects collected from different streams and ponds in the area. Students record their...
Curated OER
Save Our Forests
Fifth graders discuss the forest products industry and its affects upon their communities. They inventory the wood and paper products they consume and determine how it translates into the number of trees cut. Using a spreadsheet, they...
Curated OER
ENERGY USE ADDS UP!
Students investigate the amount of power used in your home and what appliances use the most. They analyze the concept that producing energy costs us money, affects our environment and produces waste products. Students come up with three...
Curated OER
Making Paper
Students explore how natural earth materials are processed into a human-made product. They simulate a manufacturing process by making paper. Students review the importance of recycling in preserving our natural earth resources.
Curated OER
Organic and Inorganic Recycling
Students examine their role in polluting the environment and discuss the importance of recycling. In groups, they place earthworms into compost piles to observe why they are considered natural recyclers. They also practice sorting a...
Curated OER
Natural Forces
Students assess the damage natural forces have caused Maryland's geographic features. In this state geography and ecology lesson plan, students work in a group to research ways in which weathering, erosion, and deposition have affected...
Curated OER
Rainforest
Students examine how important the rainforest and its resources are for our everyday survival in the future.
Curated OER
Preserving the Past with Oral History
Students research history by interviewing people in their community. They create a list of questions and record their responses. They end the project with some type of final product which might include a memory book.
Curated OER
The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. In this environmental instructional activity, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an...
Curated OER
Why Care About Amphibian Population Decline and Malformations?
Learners examine the reasons for preserving wildlife. They look at reasons for amphibian malformations and write an essay about the ethical issues that this brings up. They listen to the teacher read quotes about extinction and how the...
Curated OER
Past, Present, and Future
Students explore school history by documenting daily life. For this time capsule lesson, students discuss the impact a fire had on their school during the previous year and identify ways to preserve information about their school by...
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the New Explorers:Into the Depths
Learners explore the self preservation mechanism that is inherent in the Great Lakes. They examine how scientists are studying Great Lakes, and what their predictions are for these national treasures.
Curated OER
I See a Coyote
Students role-play coyotes looking for natural resources. In this natural resources lesson, students examine the relationship between animal life and the environment. Students play a game that demonstrates how natural resources affect...
Curated OER
Pets: Oh Behave
Students develop an understanding of how innate and learned behaviors and the environment determine behavior. They see how a variety of factors affects our pet's behavior-including species-specific traits, the environment, training, and...
Curated OER
Outside...North of the 49th Parallel
Students explore and discuss images of Canadian landscape focusing on the work of the Group of Seven. The discuss different Canadian environments in a group of art works and complete a chart categorizing the depictions. They complete a...
Curated OER
Natural Inquirer Ecosystem Article Lesson
Students discover new ways to preserve the ecosystem by completing graphic organizers. In this environmental lesson, students read an article from the Natural Inquirer in small groups and fill out a graphic organizer based on the...
Curated OER
The World's Forests
Students examine the world's forests. In this forest lesson, students gain knowledge about the sustainability of forests. Students break into groups and brainstorm why forests are so important to our world. Students discuss what can be...
Curated OER
Introduction to Waste Management
Students research the difference between hazardous waste and municipal solid waste. Different companies in their community are researched to determine which are contributing waste in their region, what type of waste is generated, the...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Four: How Can We Protect Biodiversity?
Look into the future with a lesson plan on biodiversity and natural habitats. Learners read articles about different perspectives when it comes to planning future development, and decide which angle is the highest priority in a group...
Curated OER
Our World A Complex Eco-system
Sixth graders set up an ecosystem, investigate conservation techniques, develop an action plan for conservation, and various other activities to explore the ecosystem.
Curated OER
Recycling
Students discuss the pros and cons of recycling on the environment. They sort and classify objects for recycling and write a brief narrative about the experience. This lesson is intended for students acquiring English.
Curated OER
How the Environment Effects our Feelings
First graders compare images and discuss their feelings created by an artist's work. They explore the correlation between experiencing feelings in art and literature and feelings caused by changes in weather.