Curated OER
Land Development and the Environment
Students examine the relationship between land development and the environment. In this environmental stewardship lesson, students explore how population density, land development, transportation, and impervious surfaces take their toll...
Curated OER
Acid Rain
Students perform experiments to determine how different acids cause acid rain. They measure the pH of the water to calculate the water's acidity. They discover how acid rain dissolves rock materials.
Curated OER
Nutrition: It's In Your Hands
Fourth graders use this lesson to focus on their health, nutrition and the state of the environment. In groups, they examine the various types of land, water and air pollutants and compare and contrast a food chain with and without a...
Colorado State University
What Is a "Model"?
Model the transfer of energy during a typical 24-hour period. Young scholars use a game-like approach to learning the patterns of heat transfer through the day and night. Groups of four exchange different tokens as the energy...
Curated OER
Porosity And Permeability
Students participate in an exercise/experiment designed to show how environmental pollution can affect the quality of drinking water.
Curated OER
Recycle
Students determine the weight of paper waste generated by the class. They brainstorm ways to reduce and recycle. They make their own paper to demonstrate recycling. This lesson is very effective in demonstrating how recycling works.
Curated OER
Groundwater Pollution Site Assessment
Students study how a geologist examines a hazardous waste spill using an actual site. They use site data to map the spill, find its source and determine how fast the spill is spreading.
Curated OER
Activity #8 Simulation of Oil Spills
Learners conduct an experiment to simulate an oil spill and identify the characteristics of oil in water. They evaluate the effectiveness of various cleanup methods. They discuss the how to clean up an oil spill, and what causes oil...
Curated OER
It's a Small World After All! (Pond Microcosms)
Learners use microscopes to investigate the diversity of life that exists in pond water. They then conduct a controlled investigation to study the effect of a pollutant (rice) on a microcosm ecosystem.
Curated OER
What's in the Air?
In this air activity, students will choose the correct definition for atmosphere, troposphere, stratosphere, and pollutant. Then students will complete a concept map showing what components make up air. This activity has 4 multiple...
Curated OER
Rainy Day Hike
Students develop awareness about the water cycles. They identify the watershed in which their school is located. They explain the role the schoolyard plays in the watershed.
Curated OER
Conservation Collage
Students identify many different ways the environment is polluted, and determine ways to prevent pollution. They create a collage of pictures describing how the earth becomes polluted.
Curated OER
"Arsenic and Old Waste": Groundwater Activities Using Modeling
Students develop models of groundwater and pollution flow. They research information using the Internet and develop models of groundwater flow in Stella and Excel.
Curated OER
Building a Healthy City (Final Project)
Students construct a scaled model of a city that provides for the economic and cultural needs of a community while maintaining high quality air and water to protect the public health. They articulate, in a presentation, the locations of...
Curated OER
Losing An Island
Students examine carbon dioxide and determine the impact of greenhouse gases on the earths spheres. In this pollution lesson students complete a lab activity to see the impact of gases on the environment,
Curated OER
Pond Ecosystem Field Trip
Students investigate the environment by participating in a class trip. In this pond ecosystem lesson, students define a list of vocabulary terms associated with ponds such as invertebrate and metamorphosis. Students attend a field trip...
Curated OER
Erosion
In this erosion worksheet, learners complete a crossword puzzle given 17 clues about the types of erosion, the causes of erosion and the results of erosion.
Curated OER
Land Use Worksheet
In this environment learning exercise, students find the solutions to a real life case study after separating into different groups. There is also information about types of land use for scaffolding of the project.
National Wildlife Federation
Ghost Town
Around 93 percent of the reefs on Australia's Great Barrier Reef have been bleached, and almost one quarter of them are now dead. Scholars research the sea temperatures, especially around the areas with coral reefs, to make connections...
University of Wisconsin
Designing a Rain Garden
Now it's time for all of the data collected in previous lessons to be applied to the design of a rain garden. This resource can only be used as part of the greater whole, since learners will need to rely on gathered knowledge in order to...
Curated OER
Weathering and Soil Formation
A set of 27 slides systematically shows how weathering, erosion, and deposition contribute to soil formation. Both chemical and mechanical weathering are described, as are resulting soil layers and properties. There is no longer any need...
University of Wisconsin
Sizing a Rain Garden
Most appropriate if you are applying the entire unit to build a rain garden at your school, this installment involves calculating the area that will drain into it. Your garden planners will need data from previous lessons, so this one...
Curated OER
Natural Gas: An American Treasure
Do your fourth graders need extra practice with evaluating fact and opinion? An informative resource provides two reading passages in which learners distinguish sentences as fact or as opinion. Additionally,...
Curated OER
Survival Science: How Evaporation and Condensation Can Save Your Life!
Eighth graders demonstrate how scientific principles can be used to provide resources in an emergency situation. In this evaporation lesson plan students view a demonstration on a solar still and see a brief PowerPoint...