In this activity, students will conduct a survey to identify the environmental issues (in their community, their country and the world) for which people are concerned. They will tally and graph the results. Also, students will discuss how surveys are important when engineers make decisions about environmental issues.

Students explore the concept of "reducing" solid waste and how it relates to product packaging and engineering advancements in packaging materials. They read about and evaluate the highly publicized packaging decisions of two major U.S. corporations. Then they evaluate different ways to package items in order to minimize the environmental impact, while considering issues such as cost, availability, product attractiveness, etc. In addition, students explore "hydropulping" and consider its use as a recycling process.

This resource contains a 60-second listening audio file with accompanying transcript, quizzes, gap fill, and spelling and word jumble activities. Opportunities are provided for students to write, ask questions, and work with a partner. NOTE: The speaker has a British accent.

This resource contains a 60-second listening audio file with accompanying transcript, quizzes, gap fill, and spelling and word jumble activities. Opportunities are provided for students to write, ask questions, and work with a partner. NOTE: The speaker has a British accent.

This resource supports English language development for English language learners. In “Earth Day Celebrations” - a brief Listen and Read nonfiction story - students learn how children in New York City, Costa Rica, South Korea, and Russia celebrate Earth Day, a holiday that honors our natural environment. The reading activity includes text, images, and audio, so students can read along while listening to a narrator. At the end of the story, a Sound It Out section lets students listen to these vocabulary words a second time: "parade," "trees," "drums," and "recycling."

Students observe and discuss a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouse to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

Students observe demonstrations, and build and evaluate simple models to understand the greenhouse effect, the role of increased greenhouse gas concentration in global warming, and the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth. In an associated literacy activity, students learn how a bill becomes law and research global warming legislation.

Students redesign and justify the packaging used in consumer products. Design criteria include reducing the amount of packaging material by 25%.

This simulated experiment allows students to investigate how temperature affects how an animal grows, with application for global climate change. There are three different experiment options, Quick Virtual Lab, Full Virtual Lab, DIY Lab. Each lab allows students to choose which data to see. The Quick Lab limits the number of manduca caterpillars that can be selected. The Full Lab gives students access to all the caterpillar subjects. The DIY Lab also includes all the caterpillars that were raised in a do-it-yourself (DIY) incubator. A Teacher's Resource Packet, containing full instructions for each experiment, student handouts, a sample lesson plan, and background information to help get you started, is also included.

Students observe and discuss a cup and pencil model of a cyclone to better understand the science behind how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

In this short video and accompanying activity and readings, students learn about the Venus Fly Trap and how it adapts to its environment to survive.

In this short video and accompanying activity and readings, students learn about a unique blackwater river in North Carolina - the Lumber River. The river has played an important role for the plants, people, and animals that have called it home.

By researching field guides and the work of John James Audubon, students will research an assigned bird. Students will create a story about the bird using the Elements of Story, and create their own bird track print from a collagraph stamp they create. Students will then create a triptych to accompany the research and the story with three panels: 1 - wide view with oil pastel, 2 - close-up view using scratchboard, 3 - track view only using monoprint track students created. Students will assemble the work into a display for exhibit. Essential Question Asked: How can we explore characteristics of animals through research, using storytelling, illustration, and printmaking?

You ride past them every day, but how often do you get out to appreciate the Wildflowers growing right along the side of the road? Join Mr. Bob, the Zoo's Neighborhood Naturalist as we take a walk along the shoulder of the road!

Students will observe mealworms and earthworms and then make and record observations about their behavior. Students will differentiate between learned and instinctual/inherited behaviors by observing the worms' actions in a variety of scenarios.

This lesson will allow students to explore an important role of environmental engineers: cleaning the environment. Students will learn details about the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which was one of the most publicized and studied environmental tragedies in history. In the accompanying activity, they will try many "engineered" strategies to clean up their own manufactured oil spill and learn the difficulties of dealing with oil released into our waters.

In this activity, children will place a seed in soil, care for it, and track the plant?s growth. By caring for a plant, children will contribute to Lady Bird Johnson?s mission of beautification. Observation and measuring skills will be developed through tracking the plant's growth.

Students will investigate photosynthesis and respiration in plants. They will also apply their knowledge about these processes to the issue of deforestation in tropical forests.

In this lesson, students will learn about animal adaptation, hibernation, and migration. Students will do an experiment that shows how adaptation works and will make their own book about apple trees.

Students gain an understanding of the parts of a plant, plant types and how they produce their own food from sunlight through photosynthesis. They also learn about transpiration, the process by which plants release moisture to the atmosphere. With this understanding, students test the effects of photosynthesis and transpiration by growing a plant from seed. They learn how plants play an important part in maintaining a balanced environment in which the living organisms of the Earth survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their evolving understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.