Earth Day, Ecology, and Sustainability Toolkit

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LearniT-TeachiT's curriculum supports Earth Day and environmental education and awareness every day! In this toolkit, find complete lesson plans and activity guides that inform and foster ecosystem and science education toward sustaining and improving our environment. AND, find the building blocks to create your own tech-integrated lesson plans using the LearniT-TeachiT 6ES model to engage and excite learners.  

 Animal Habitats  ░   Butterfly Life Cycles ░  Digital eco-cards /videos   ░   Disappearing Dirt  ░ Energy Crunch

Environment & You ░  Learning About Animal Shelters   ░ Our Troubled World ░  Space Weather

 

birds nest

Animal Habitats (WebQuest) In this lesson, each student is given the name of a specific animal.

They will explore a WebQuest (created in PowerPoint) to learn about various habitats (desert, tundra, rainforest, forest, ocean) that will help determine where the animal would live and how this habitat meets the animal's needs (air, water, food, shelter). 

 

 

 

butterfly

 Butterfly Life Cycles : migration between US and Mexico. This is a cross curriculum lesson that introduces the life cycle of the butterflies as well as allows students to learn about another culture.  The lesson considers how environmental needs prompt migration.

The lesson can introduce  students to the areas in Mexico where the monarchs migrate for winter or in the US for the summer. Students are introduced to the region, physical characteristics of the area, and the people who live there.

 

ecocards and video

Digital Earth friendly communications, created using sustainable e-resources, are even greater paper-savers if the students e-mail them or post them on a school web site:

  •  Digital Eco-card Guide Sheet Create earth-aware greeting cards to share with all these support resources -- digital photo creation tutorials; free software to create a greeting card.  
  • Eco-video Guide Sheet. Create and shoot environmental videos building technology and ecology awareness

 

dirt

 Disappearing Dirt Students will work with a partner to research various forms of erosion.

They will analyze satellite images looking for erosion due to running water, wave action, wind, and weather.

Based upon this research, students create PowerPoints to visualize change over time

 

light bulb

 Energy Crunch: Students learn about nonrenewable and renewable energy resources. They work in groups to research one form of renewable energy using the Internet. Each group will develop a PowerPoint presentation to highlight strengths of this energy resource. Using the PowerPoint presentation, they will speak before the "Energy Commission" to persuade the commission to fund more research for their form of renewable energy. 

 

world in hands

 The Environment and You Students gain understanding of environmental issues through Internet research, learning how environmental problems are surfaced and their community impacts.  They plan and produce a video.  Goals including developing a lifelong concern for their environment and ability to discern and address needs.

 

polar bears

 Learning about Animal Shelters for Earth Day (and every day): habitats and  how to enhance their own school grounds to provide better shelters.

Week 1 Reviewing shelters and exploring animal shelters on school grounds, taking digital pictures and journaling;
Week 2 Discuss Earth Day and  decide on a project to enhance the school grounds and provide more shelters for animals;
Week 3 Students create a PowerPoint digital "Our Animal Shelters" to share their photos and reflections with each other and other school group

 

cracked earth class=

 Our Troubled World eCollage is a study of global issues through Internet research and interviews. Each selects an issue and designs an eCollage or brief video describing the problems and their ideas.  May be integrated into any environmental lesson plan. Use our eCollage Guidesheet.   
space science Space Weather - From the Mouths of Space Scientists : Students analyze a primary source video interview from scientists and participants attending the Greenland Space Science Symposium 2007.  Based upon this, they share learning about the Sun and space weather's impact on Earth using either a PowerPoint presentation or by producing a video. 

Students use Internet resources, including the Space Weather Action Center, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Sun-Earth Connection, and Sun-Earth Day page.