NEW 2015 RESOURCES
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.
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Air Quality Theme Page
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Biomes Theme Pages
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Endangered Species Theme Page
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Global Warming/Climate Change Theme Page
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Hazardous Wastes Disposal Theme Page
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Hunger Theme Page
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Over Population Theme Page
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Ozone Depletion Theme Page
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Theme Page
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Sustainable Development Theme Page
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Birds:
Our Environmental Indicators
- This unit plan comes complete with introductory information, teacher preparation
consideration, student activities, and assessment tools.
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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.
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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.
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Encarta
Lesson Collection: Ecology
- Select "Science" and then "Ecology" on their Lesson Collection Page to
find about twenty lesson plans in this subject.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Our
World - A Complex Eco-system
- This three week unit plan for intermediate students has 8 lesson plans
along with support documents.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[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.