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Earth Day is April 22, 2013

By Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer

Found in: Science, 6-8

Explore new and review familiar ways to live responsibly with these lessons, projects, activities, and games for grades 6-8.

Lesson Plans

Comparing Light Bulbs
Students in grades K-8 compare compact fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs to measure the difference between being energy-efficient and energy-wasteful.

Draft-O-Meter
Students in grades K-8 learn an easy technique to measure the presence of drafts in their homes and classrooms.

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.

Energy Detectives (3 Activities)
Students in grades 5-8 search their classroom for energy connections and record the ways they use energy throughout a typical day in an energy detective journal.

Geothermal Energy (5 Activities)
Students in grades 5-8 explore heat transfer from rock to water, energy transfer between fluids in a binary geothermal power plant, salinity’s effect on the boiling point of water, emissions from a geothermal power plant and those from a fossil fuel power plant, and the performance of a model dry steam power plant with turbine blades and steam jets of different size and number.

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 pgs.)
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.

Lesson Units

Department of Energy: K-12 Lesson Plans & ActivitiesTeach 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.

Celebrate Earth Day (Scholastic)
Promote environmental awareness with these lessons, activities, and printables for grades 5-8.

• Green Lesson Plans & Activities K-12 (Green School Project)
• 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 Day (NASA)
• Earth Hour

Games & Activities

• Top Ten 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 Video Recommendations
For grades K-12. Eight full-length conservation-themed episodes from the PBS television program Nature that you can watch online.

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: March 29, 2013