Every year, we honor our Earth by participating in outdoor projects and events on April 22. In fact, with the magic of flowers blooming and plants greening all around us this time of year, the entire spring season is the perfect time to study nature and the environment. Discuss current and future environmental issues, including possible solutions, with your students. The following resources provide ideas for science, social studies, and literature classrooms:
- Engage students in discussions and activities about climate change and the human impact on the environment using rights-cleared photographs and lesson materials from the “Earth, Climate, and Change” and “Garbage: The Science of What We Throw Away” collections on Essential Lens: Analyzing Photographs Across the Curriculum.
- Learn about a team of MIT scientists working to make solar cells more efficient in Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions, “Matter and the Rise of Atomic Theory.”
- Hear thought-provoking views and research findings from experts in the field, including entomologist E.O. Wilson in The Habitable Planet, unit 13 video, “Looking Forward: Our Global Experiment.”
- Two interactives in The Habitable Planet allow you and your students to manage an energy crisis. The Carbon Lab explores how human influence on carbon output affects the future health of the Earth’s atmosphere. In the Energy Lab interactive, try developing a portfolio of energy resources that cuts back on CO2 and considers the pros and cons of multiple sources of energy.
- Gage Reeves asks his 5th graders to relate their reading about global warming and climate change to events and products in their community in Teaching Reading 3-5 Workshop, classroom program 13, “Reading Across the Curriculum.”
- Consider the possible conflicts that arise when living in a future society affected by significant global warming and other challenges by reading “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler. The Expanding Canon: Teaching Multicultural Literature, session 7, “Critical Pedagogy,” includes an audio clip of the author and a synopsis of the story.
- Learn about where oil comes from, how it is extracted and used for energy, and the effects of using oil as an energy source on the environment in Earth Revealed, program 26, “Living With Earth, Part II.”
- Explore environmental mysteries like the causes of ice ages and consider how life shapes the earth in Planet Earth, program 3, “The Climate Puzzle,” and program 7, “Fate of the Earth.”
- Economic stories show how pollution is a “negative externality” that can have serious consequences for economic efficiency in Economics U$A, unit 8, “Pollution and the Environment.”
- The World of Chemistry, program 17, “The Precious Envelope,” explains ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect on the earth’s atmosphere.