BRIGHT Girls was a project to build broader participation in the sciences, led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and funded by the National Science Foundation. We sought to increase students' motivation and capacity to pursue careers in STEM by engaging them in studies of nearby natural environments. The developed lesson plans may be used in formal or informal educational settings, e.g., in a summer academy or across multiple class periods. These investigations help students explore the relationships among life history and ecosystems, connecting biology to geology and remote sensing.

The properties of Water is discussed in this unit, as well as the methods of Wastewater treament  and the Water cycle.

In this virtual professional development opportunity designed for teachers, EarthGen explores two global crises taking place concurrently - the climate crisis and COVID-19. What are the connections between the two? Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities disproportionately affected by both? Educators receive foundational information around climate justice, analyze the variables associated with vulnerability, exposure, and risk, and explore educational resources to bring this content into their classrooms.Contact EarthGen at info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

In this lesson students will learn about the human demands of freshwater and how clean drinking water is being impacted. Students will analyze the issues of cause and effect between human activities and water sustainability. Students will demonstrate this knowledge by create a presentation illustrating the effects of human activities on water resources.

The purpose of the resource is to investigate changes in the major land cover types of Study Sites by examining Landsat satellite images acquired years apart.

Through an introduction to the design of lighting systems and the electromagnetic spectrum, students learn about the concept of daylighting as well as two types of light bulbs (lamps) often used in energy-efficient lighting design.

Students will explore exponential growth, sustainability, population trends, and social responsibility as observed in various texts relating to U.S. Westward Expansion.

The purpose of the resource is to produce a land cover type map from hard copies of Landsat satellite images.

This class long lesson plan features learning about nanotechnology by asking students to search for links and bringing the information they find to a class discussion. 

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water. 

Day 3 of the Nanotechnology and Water lesson and Day 2 of its associated lab displaying how water quality can affect living organisms.

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water.

The activity for high school students aims to display the importance of water quality and how nanotechnology can be used to help purify the water.Day 5 includes analysis questions that cover content from Nanotechnology and Water Days 1-4. 

Students learn and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. They also learn about our nation's electric power grid and what it means for a residential home to be "off the grid."

As the climate is changing, one of the many consequences is sea level rise, which is not a standalone factor, but is closely related to erosion and extreme weather/storm conditions. The majority of coastal houses, recreational parks, and other coastal buildings were built as sturdy but stagnant structures that do not adjust well to the changing elements. Coastal homes have been collapsing into the ocean and restaurants have been destroyed by storm waves. The economic damage has been accumulating. In this storyline, students will explore the reasons behind sea level rise looking at thermal expansion, glacial ice melt, and sea ice melt. Students will examine real scenarios of coastal damage in Washington state and evaluate current city and tribal resilience plans. Finally, students will evaluate the constraints of existing challenges and propose strategies for solving these challenges.

Students are introduced to passive solar design for buildings an approach that uses the sun's energy and the surrounding climate to provide natural heating and cooling. They learn about some of the disadvantages of conventional heating and cooling and how engineers incorporate passive solar designs into our buildings for improved efficiency.

Students become familiar with the online Renewable Energy Living Lab interface and access its real-world solar energy data to evaluate the potential for solar generation in various U.S. locations. They become familiar with where the most common sources of renewable energy are distributed across the U.S. Through this activity, students and teachers gain familiarity with the living lab's GIS graphic interface and query functions, and are exposed to the available data in renewable energy databases, learning how to query to find specific information for specific purposes. The activity is intended as a "training" activity prior to conducting activities such as The Bright Idea activity, which includes a definitive and extensive end product (a feasibility plan) for students to create.

Students use real-world data to evaluate the feasibility of solar energy and other renewable energy sources in different U.S. locations. Working in small groups, students act as engineers evaluating the suitability of installing solar panels at four company locations. They access data from the online Renewable Energy Living Lab from which they make calculations and analyze how successful solar energy generation would be, as well as the potential for other power sources at those locations. Then they summarize their results, analysis and recommendations in the form of feasibility plans prepared for a CEO.

This unit includes 5 lessons that culminates in a persuasive argument in the form of letter to congressional member or grant proposal to Duke Energy.

Towards finding a solution to the unit's Grand Challenge Question about using nanoparticles to detect, treat and protect against skin cancer, students continue the research phase in order to answer the next research questions: What is the structure and function of skin? How does UV radiation affect the chemical reactions that go on within the skin? After seeing an ultraviolet-sensitive bead change color and learning how they work, students learn about skin anatomy and the effects of ultraviolet radiation on human skin, pollution's damaging effect on the ozone layer that can lead to increases in skin cancer, the UV index, types of skin cancer, ABCDEs of mole and lesion evaluation, and the sun protection factor (SPF) rating system for sunscreens. This prepares students to conduct the associated activity, in which they design quality-control experiments to test SPF substances.