Instructional Materials in the Environment

NEW 2015 RESOURCES

The Primary Website (FREE primary content)
Open Course Resources (FREE Online Courses in Moodle)

Course Companion Websites (FREE resources) Elementary Online (some FREE elementary content)

Instructional Materials in the Environment

Below are the CLN "Theme Pages" which focus on specific topics within the study of the Environment. CLN's theme pages are collections of useful Internet educational resources within a narrow curricular topic and contain links to two types of information. Students and teachers will find curricular resources (information, content...) to help them learn about this topic. In addition, there are links to instructional materials (lesson plans) which will help teachers provide instruction in this theme.

Air Quality Theme Page

Biomes Theme Pages

Endangered Species Theme Page

Global Warming/Climate Change Theme Page

Hazardous Wastes Disposal Theme Page

Hunger Theme Page

Over Population Theme Page

Ozone Depletion Theme Page

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Theme Page

Sustainable Development Theme Page

Water Quality Theme Page

General Environment Resources

Here are a number of links to other Internet resources which contain information and/or other links related to the study of the Environment. Please read our disclaimer.

Animal Habitats and Destruction or Loss of Habitat: A four week teaching unit from the Core Knowledge web site for primary students. Lesson topics are: Exploring Schoolyard Habitats, Saltwater Habitats, Freshwater Habitats (Wetland Habitats), Underground Habitats, Forest Habitats, Desert Habitats, Polar Habitats, Grassland Habitats, and Loss of Animal Habitats.
Animal Tracks On-Line: The National Wildlife Federation provides this collection of environmental education lessons and activities. Resources are divided into five categories: air, habitat, people and the environment, wildlife and endangered species, and water. Each section includes an introduction, general background information, fun facts,and a glossary of terms and classroom activities.
Birds: Our Environmental Indicators: This unit plan comes complete with introductory information, teacher preparation consideration, student activities, and assessment tools.
Bureau of Land Management: Environmental Education Homepage: A large number of curricular/teaching resources on environmental education. Units include: Alaska's Cold Desert; The Big Empty (The Great Plains); The High Plains; units on archeology and history; environmental ethics; fire ecology; minerals; noxious weeds; water; and wildlife. Lesson activities are included in many of the units.
EE-Link: Environmental Education on the Internet: EE-Link provides free online access to resources of special interest to educators who teach about the environment. These resources include instructional materials, articles, funding sources, and networking opportunities.
Encarta Lesson Collection: Ecology: Select "Science" and then "Ecology" on their Lesson Collection Page to find about twenty lesson plans in this subject.
ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education: Lesson Plans in Environmental Education: The ERIC Clearinghouse serves as a metalist of links to Environmental Education lesson plans. Some of those lesson plans are already linked to directly from CLN, but there are others that may prove useful.
Explorer Data Base: Environment: The Explorer is a collection of educational resources (instructional software, lab activities, lesson plans ...) for K-12 mathematics and science education." Environmental topics are included within the science section.
Exploring the Environment: The Exploring the Environment project provides teacher tools through which students can conduct research in environmental areas. These tools involve the use of remote sensing data from satellite images.
Healthy School Environment: This interdisciplinary unit will engage middle/junior high school students in participatory science, examination of multi-causal reasons for particular situations, data collection, data organization and data analysis as they conduct field research into the quality of their school environment. The teaching unit is fully developed with lesson plans, assessment guidelines, samples of student work, resource materials, and Internet links. During the project, students will investigate a wide range of school environment issues, including air quality, drinking water quality, temperature, radon levels, carbon dioxide levels, carbon monoxide levels, oxygen levels, formaldehyde content, air flow, illumination, and relative humidity. This is more than a science unit. The teacher developers have integrated the activities to be part of the Social Studies, English, Science, and Math classes in an eight week study.
National Geographic.com: Use the keyword search engine on this home page of the National Geographic.com web site to retrieve environmental resources from their database (keyword = "environment" will produce over 45 lesson plans). Caution: not all of the lesson plans may be what you're looking for and you'll get more than just lesson plans with the keyword search.
Our World - A Complex Eco-system: This three week unit plan for intermediate students has 8 lesson plans along with support documents.
Protect Our Planet: This curriculum unit for upper elementary gifted students covers topics on ozone destruction, deforestation, recycling, acid rain, and the destruction of the world's oceans. Links to Internet reources are provided within the individual lessons.
Smile Program Biology Index: Teachers participating in the SMILE (Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement) summer session programs each create a single concept lesson plan. This database has 21 lesson plans in the section on Environmental Studies and Ecology. Caution: Since there is a wide number of authors who have contributed to the database, the detail and quality of the lesson plans will vary.
What on Earth Are You Doing for Earth Day?: Education World presents 28 activities to celebrate Earth Day across the curriculum. All of these activities draw on environment-related Internet sites for kids.
[The] World Wide Biome Project: Teachers may wish to use this project to provide students with: 1) a standard method of investigating the biomes in which they live; 2) a way of publishing their scientific findings on the World Wide Web for others to view; 3) a site where they can obtain comparative data from other biomes around the world; and 4) a chance to integrate computer skills with ecological sampling skills.

Note: The sites listed above all have lesson plans/activities for the Environment classroom teacher. For other resources in Social Studies (e.g., curricular content or theme pages), click the "previous screen" button below. Or, click here if you wish to return directly to the CLN menu which will give you access to educational resources in all of our subjects.