In this lesson, students identify the common characteristics of primates that allow them to survive in their environments. Students will also explore how changes in the environment can affect the survival rate of certain organisms in an ecosystem and come up with at least one action item to help protect primates in the natural world.

In this online interactive, students discover things that are beneficial and harmful to the puma in its habitat. The interactive looks at the habitat area 500 years ago, 200 years ago, and in present day.

In this lesson, students will understand the negative effects of pollution on storm water runoff, investigate the negative effects of paved areas on water runoff, explain the importance of water conservation, and describe how rain gardens can help filter our water supply and improve our environment.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade Science.

In this activity, students are given roles in a skit designed to illustrate how a salt marsh works and how the organisms in it interact with each other.

Help students explore an important moment of environmental activism in North Carolina with Save Our Sand Dunes by Hannah Bunn West and with Ann-Cabell Baum. This complementary learning guide to the book is designed to help educators guide young readers in discovering how Carolista Baum rallied a community and advocated for local and state leaders to preserve Jockey's Ridge.

In this activity, students play a board game in which players try to ensure the survival of their animal species while dealing with problems (such as habitat destruction, pollution, or natural disasters) the animals encounter during the game. Prior to the game, the book Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers should be read aloud to the students and used to engage student thinking about human and environmental impact on animal survival.

In this online interactive, students explore seagrass habitat areas, their benefits to animals, the threats they face, and how humans can help protect them.

In this lesson, students will observe the effects of a simulated oil spill on land, water, and wildlife. In groups, students will then test different materials and tools used to clean up oil spills and evaluate them for their effectiveness.

In this lesson, students study homes and habitats of people and organisms and then move into the future to construct innovative new living spaces that maximize available limited space.

This short story presents the issues involved in deciding how water will be used in the development of a new town. A link is also provided on the page to a script adaptation of the story so that students can act out the story through role play.

In this lesson, students listen to an adaptation of Aesop’s Fable, The Hen That Laid the Golden Egg, and discover what it means for something to be sustainable. They define the word steward and brainstorm ways that citizens can participate as forest stewards. As a group, students read about situations facing our forests and determine which actions would help sustain them. Upon completion, students are sworn in as forest stewards and make a shield or family crest that shows why our forests are important and what they can do to sustain them.

In this lesson, students explore the reasons for urban forest management through an interactive board game. They then consider if those same problems and solutions can be applied to rural forests.

Students learn that humans impact ecosystems (including food webs) in both positive and negative ways.

In this lesson, students understand and cite examples of basic needs within familiar ecosystems. Students will also understand that if basic needs are not met, organisms may become threatened, endangered, or extinct.

Students find out how people and animals affect each other as they work through the simulation, helping protect Loggerhead sea turtles and their habitat, so they can survive.

This game occurs inside the ecosystem of an estuary on the west coast of the United States. Following a young girl named Valerie, players interact with Oscar the sea otter, and the fictional Claminator, a geoduck clam. To succeed, players must learn about the factors that produce healthy estuaries, food webs, and why estuaries are essential to both ocean life and to humans.

In this lesson, students will learn about water pollution and the effects it can have on plant and animal life.

In this lesson, students model the relationships that exist between the organisms in a lake environment.