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Earth Day is April 22

By Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer

Lesson Plans

Build a Pizza Box Solar Oven
Students in grades K-12 make a simple solar oven using a pizza box that gets hot enough to warm up cookies and other treats, like s'mores.

Building the Basic PVC Wind Turbine
Students in grades 5-12 make a rugged and inexpensive classroom wind turbine that can be used for lab bench-based blade design experiments. A few specialized parts are needed (a hub and DC motor), but most of the components can be found at hardware stores.

Have and Have-Not ( PDF, 43 KB, 2 PP)
Students in grades 7-9 compare consumption habits in developing and developed countries and examine the effect of mass consumption on the Ecological Footprint of a country and an individual.

Reduce, Reuse, and Create Art! ( PDF, 107 KB, 6 PP)
Students in grades 9-12 create their own art project out of recycled materials.

Life, Death, Dirt and Walt Whitman
Students in grades 9-12 use Walt Whitman’s poem “This Compost” as a literary lens to discuss the rebirth of organic materials through composting.

Green Jobs and Economics ( PDF, 132 KB, 8 pgs.)
Students in grades 9-12 explore green jobs and green business practices that will play an important role in rebuilding and strengthening our economy and environment.

An Exploration of Wind Energy & Wind Turbines
In this unit, students in grades 9-12 work in teams to design, test, and analyze components of a wind turbine: blade length, blade shape, height of turbine, etc. Student worksheets are included to facilitate the design and analysis process. The unit includes a pre and post test on wind power.

Endangered Ecosystems K-12 students study studies animals that live in endangered ecosystems in the tropical forests of Mexico and Costa Rica and the wetlands of Brazil.

Lesson Units

Department of Energy: K-12 Lesson Plans & Activities
Teach your students the importance of green energy with creative lesson plans, labs, projects and other activities for grades K-12 on energy-related topics.

Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans
An array of environmental and science based lesson plans, activities and ideas for K-12.

• eGFI: For Teachers Lesson Plans  K-12
• Green Your Lesson Plan  K-12 (Greening Schools)

Websites & Portals

Science Education
ScienceEducation.gov (beta version) is the unification of federal science agencies’ science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education content, supporting cyber-learning and open participation.

• An Educator's Guide to Green Lessons & Activities
• EIA Energy Kids (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
• Green Curricula and Environmental Learning Activities (The Green Spotlight)
• Earth Day (Environmental Protection Agency)
• NASA Earth Month 2013 (NASA)
• Earth Hour

Games & Activities

Top 10 Earth Day Activities
10 activities for grades K-12.

Organics 101
Online Jeopardy-style game on organic food for secondary grades.

Environmental Education: Activities & Games 6-12

Printables

• Coloring Pages Environment  K-8
• National Green Week: Posters K-12
• Hazardous Substance Information and Education Office  K-12

Video

Earth Day History
For grades K-12 there are13 brief Earth Day related videos, charting the green movement since the first Earth Day in 1970.

last updated: February 9, 2016