Use this site to learn about the science of climate change and its potential effects on our nation's wildlife and their habitats.
Host Harry Kreisler welcomes scientist Lars-Erik Liljelund, Director General of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, for a discussion of Swedish policy for addressing climate change and global warming. He reflects on his own career which combines work in public policy and science. He also talks about the distinctive quality of the global warming problem and the obstacles for finding and implementing solutions. 54 min)
Some bird species appear to respond to extreme weather changes in their native habitat by moving to more hospitable environments. This article discusses the role of NASA satellites, along with field and citizen scientists, in studying that movement. The article also includes an activity on constructing a bird feeder. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
This series of 18 captioned images depict several weather and climate-related events such as flooding, drought, glacial retreat and wind erosion. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
This question is addressed through a series of questions and answers, each providing related introductory information such as how climate change is studied, the history of Earth’s climate, and the effects of climate change on Earth’s geology and biology. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
Use the imbedded sliding scale to observe changes in sea ice distribution, carbon emission levels and average global temperatures over time, as well as the effects of variations in sea level rise along coastal regions. This interactive is part of the Climate Kids website, a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
The Colourful World Game presents the player with problems related to sustainability that he/she must solve by exploring the game's environment, gathering information/following clues, and collecting and using items.
The player is visited by different animals seeking help after experiencing the consequences of unsustainable human behaviours. The player then has to explore different scenarios in order to resolve the situation and return the animals to their habitat.
The player will have 4 levels to play, corresponding to 4 different themes and complexity levels.
Following research activities conducted by the Colourful World consortium, the Game has been designed to facilitate acquisition of Sustainable Development related competences by children.
This article describes six collaborative and real data projects that engage elementary students in collecting and sharing local data and communicating with students across the country and world.
In this video segment adapted from LOKE Films and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, learn how human populations in the Arctic are affected by industrial contaminants in the food chain.
Students learn the meaning of preservation and conservation and identify themselves and others as preservationists or conservationists in relation to specific environmental issues. They use Venn diagrams to clarify the similarities and differences in viewpoints. They see how an environmental point-of-view affects the approach to an engineering problem.
This Educator's Guide will provide the steps and materials you will need to create your own herbarium as part of the 4-H Honey Bee Project.
Student teams design and then create small-size models of working filter systems to simulate multi-stage wastewater treatment plants. Drawing from assorted provided materials (gravel, pebbles, sand, activated charcoal, algae, coffee filters, cloth) and staying within a (hypothetical) budget, teams create filter systems within 2-liter plastic bottles to clean the teacher-made simulated wastewater (soap, oil, sand, fertilizer, coffee grounds, beads). They aim to remove the water contaminants while reclaiming the waste material as valuable resources. They design and build the filtering systems, redesigning for improvement, and then measuring and comparing results (across teams): reclaimed quantities, water quality tests, costs, experiences and best practices. They conduct common water quality tests (such as turbidity, pH, etc., as determined by the teacher) to check the water quality before and after treatment.
The limited series of podcasts including downloadable documents are meant for teachers teaching internally displaced learners 13 to 19 years of age. The modules titled Education and Employment, Health and Wellness, Preserving Environment and Self-employment make the teachers aware of skills in demand, employment avenues, and strategies that can be adopted by teachers. You can listen to the episodes on OER Commons, Spotify, Apple, Google, and Stitcher.
The DISCOVER-AQ curriculum integrates real-word research with real-life learning to answer the question: What are the causes and effects of air quality issues and how do they affect human health and the environment?
Congratulations! You are about to improve pollinator habitats in your own space! Did you know that pollinators are responsible for one in three bites of food that you eat? Bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, beetles, and flies, to name a few, are responsible for so many delicious foods we enjoy. From chocolate and coffee to apples and watermelons, we need these vital creatures to pollinate 80% of all flowering species and 35% of the world’s crops! And you can do your part to help the pollinators with a few simple steps. View Resource to learn more!
This introductory course will provide you with a multidisciplinary approach to managing waste in low- and middle-income countries, with strategies that diminish greenhouse gas emissions and provide enterprise opportunities for marginalized populations. You will focus on understanding some of the multiple dimensions of waste generation and management. Topics are presented in real contexts through case studies, field visits, civic engagement and research, and include consumer culture, waste streams, waste management, entrepreneurship and innovation on waste, technology evaluation, downcycling / upcycling, Life Cycle Analysis and waste assessment. Labs include building low-cost, small scale technology, field trips to waste-related institutions and businesses, art workshops and e-waste scrapping taught by practitioners, artists and waste enthusiasts.
This course focuses on disseminating Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) or water/environment innovations in developing countries and underserved communities worldwide. It emphasizes core WASH and water/environment principles, culture-specific solutions, tools for start-ups, appropriate and sustainable technologies, behavior change, social marketing, building partnerships, and the theory and practice of innovation diffusion.
Students learn how the process of soil solarization is used to pasteurize agricultural fields before planting crops. Soil solarization is a pest control technique in agriculture that uses the sun’s radiation to heat the soil and eliminate unwanted pests that could harm the crops. The approach is compared to other pest control methods such as fumigation and herbicide application, highlighting the respective benefits and drawbacks. In preparation for the associated hands-on activity on soil biosolarization, students learn how changing the variables involved in the solarizing process (such as the tarp material, soil water content and addition of organic matter) impacts the technique’s effectiveness. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-quiz is provided.
While the creation of a dam provides many benefits, it can have negative impacts on local ecosystems. Students learn about the major environmental impacts of dams and the engineering solutions used to address them.
Through eight lessons, students are introduced to many facets of dams, including their basic components, the common types (all designed to resist strong forces), their primary benefits (electricity generation, water supply, flood control, irrigation, recreation), and their importance (historically, currently and globally). Through an introduction to kinetic and potential energy, students come to understand how dams generate electricity. They learn about the structure, function and purpose of locks, which involves an introduction to Pascal's law, water pressure and gravity. Other lessons introduce students to common environmental impacts of dams and the engineering approaches to address them. They learn about the life cycle of salmon and the many engineered dam structures that aid in their river passage, as they think of their own methods and devices that could help fish migrate past dams. Students learn how dams and reservoirs become part of the Earth's hydrologic cycle, focusing on the role of evaporation. To conclude, students learn that dams do not last forever; they require ongoing maintenance, occasionally fail or succumb to "old age," or are no longer needed, and are sometimes removed. Through associated hands-on activities, students track their personal water usage; use clay and plastic containers to model and test four types of dam structures; use paper cups and water to learn about water pressure and Pascal's Law; explore kinetic energy by creating their own experimental waterwheel from two-liter plastic bottles; collect and count a stream's insects to gauge its health; play an animated PowerPoint game to quiz their understanding of the salmon life cycle and fish ladders; run a weeklong experiment to measure water evaporation and graph their data; and research eight dams to find out and compare their original purposes, current status, reservoir capacity and lifespan. Woven throughout the unit is a continuing hypothetical scenario in which students act as consulting engineers with a Splash Engineering firm, assisting Thirsty County in designing a dam for Birdseye River.