Students discuss protected land areas, what it means to protect land, and reasons for it. Then students brainstorm what information about protected lands and animals would be useful on a map.
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 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.
In this lesson, students will investigate the differences between three to five types of soil, will understand how particle size affects water movement and use, will explain how soil use can be improved through use of rain gardens, will describe community benefits of rain gardens.
This website has lots to offer - people and places to visit and plenty of ways to explore how the city's residents recycle, reduce, and reuse waste. Students can click on any section of Recycle City that they want to tour, or click on the Dumptown Game. They can also create their own Recycle City scavenger hunt or go to the Activities area to see other ways they can explore.
In this activity, students will calculate the amount of energy they save by recycling paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum materials over the span of a week.
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.
This lesson begins by following up to the previous lesson in which students were instructed to politely refuse one single-use item. Students will observe how one community in South America makes something wonderful from trash. Students will learn the importance of reducing their trash by actively participating in a trash-sorting activity, and demonstrate the ability to reuse trash by making a "trash to treasure" product. This lesson was developed by Lee Ann Smith as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.
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.
This teacher's guide describes service learning as a form of project based learning in which academic goals are accomplished through community service. The guide covers the role of the teachers and the components of a successful service learning project and provides project examples and recommended resources.
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.
Students will investigate the role plants, grasses, and trees have in preventing soil erosion. They will identify some causes and effects of soil erosion, observe erosion results made with different materials, and explain how planting grass and other plants can reduce erosion and run-off.
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 activity, students will identify household products that are recyclable and explore the different types of recyclable plastics.
Resources include active webpages with text about major topics associated with climate change issues and a music video for the song "Take Aim at Climate Change." The lyrics in the rap music video provide background content information about the causes and effects of global climate change. A supplemental page links footnoted information in the lyrics to additional web resources.
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.