High schoolers examine the "quiet crisis," the lack of clean water, by reading articles and viewing video clips. They discuss the situations in Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, and Nepal. There are two options for the activity, but one of them...

Step into a scientist's shoes to go online and discover the Florida Springs Expedition, and participate in two activities focusing on how humans impact the environment. The first activity asks scholars to summarize the six...

Collaborative earth science groups create a working model of a watershed. Once it has been developed, you come along and introduce a change in land use, impacting the quality of water throughout their watershed. Model making is an...

While teaching about endangered species, you can incorporate this activity as a take-home reminder of what is threatening the sea turtle population. It is one of those paper plate projects in which a wedge is cut out to reveal a picture...

You will need to gather a number of tokens, bags, and other various game components in order to incorporate this activity into your curriculum. Different tokens represent carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Printable 8.5"x11"...

Give your class a magnetic charge with this creative experiment designed to teach emerging scientists about electromagnetism. Pupils construct a model that demonstrates the function of an electrical generator and test this creation in a...

How do we clean up oil spills and other pollutants in the water? Explore water treatment strategies with a set of environmental science experiments. Groups remove oil from water, work with wastewater treatment, and perform a water...

Introduce materials science with a class demonstration. After showing a PowerPoint presentation on materials and their properties, instructors provide a ceramic tile, a Popsicle stick, a paper clip, and a plastic bag as examples of...

After challenging themselves to correctly choose the form of erosion and length of time required for a given landform to develop, earth science class members model mechanical and chemical weathering with various lab demonstrations over...

How much trash does an average family produce in 24 hours? Where does that trash end up? Get your youngsters thinking about ecology and conservation as they discuss the impact pollution has on the marine environment. After a deep...

Explore biology by conducting an organism search field trip! Young explorers discuss how litter impacts the environment and how some organisms find solace in the trash we leave behind. Several worksheets are included here. 

Turn your learners into flocks of migratory birds for this fun activity on animal migration. Prior to the activity, the teacher creates four different migration routes in the classroom or any available open space, labeling nesting...

To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...

Investigate aspects of sustainable cities and relate them to where you live! A detailed lesson first investigates the definition of sustainability. Learners then explore human impact on the environment and social justice. Their final...

The goal of this science lesson is to have youngsters be able to identify the physical and chemical changes in the carbon cycle, and water cycle due to weathering. The in-class inquiry/experiment is quite interesting and easy to...

Can our energy resources keep up with our ever-growing population? Science scholars learn the basics of energy and Earth's energy resources during an electrifying lesson. The resource combines video clips and an engineering design...

Students answer a quiz on rainforests. They plan an advertising campaign to let consumers know the effect their purchases are having on the environment. They list the reasons for deforestation and possible alternatives.

Discuss with learners why farms are growing in size and why there is sometimes conflict between farmers and their non-farming neighbors. Read the article, "Living With the Farm Next Door," and then craft letters to the editor from the...

A well-written lesson plan, second in a series of four, gets high schoolers exploring how the Antarctic food web is impacted by climate change and the associated melting of polar ice sheets. It begins with a PowerPoint presentation about...

Is qualitative or quantitative research more convincing when it comes to climate change? In the eighth lesson plan during this 21-part series, scholars begin by performing a quantitative analysis of deforestation and urbanization. Then,...

What caused the dust bowl, and should we worry about it happening again? Scholars look at various data to come up with their hypotheses. Then, they experiment to find some of the factors that contributed. Finally, the video has them look...

Middle schoolers create their own land or water environment. They make their environment livable for all the different animals they collect to put in it. Students research the types of animals that they can have in their environment,...

Fifth graders focus on the various types of fish living in different water environments. In groups, they research the different methods used to fish and participate in experiments to determine the effects of mercury on fish, the...

Fifth graders identify the species of plants and animals found in an environment. They compare these findings to plant and animal species found in an unlike environment. Students acquire and compare soil samples from the two sites chosen.