Students investigate the source, cost, and quality of their school’s water supply, and ways to enhance current water conservation practices.
Below is a collection of resources that support PLT’s GreenSchools Water Investigation.
To get the investigation, download a digital version or purchase a print copy.
Discover ways to green your home - and save money - with these questions and tips. This Green Your Home checklist will help children and their families decide together what they might do to improve their environment at home.
Every month we carefully select new tools and resources that enhance PLT’s lessons. These include educational apps, videos, posters, interactive websites, careers information, and teacher-generated materials. Browse a chronological listing below:
Learn more about the life of a field forester and more in this booklet Find Your Path from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. Joe Newton, once a professional football player for the Seattle Seahawks, now works for Lone Rock Timber in Roseburg, Oregon as a Field Forester. He collaborates with tree-planters, helicopter pilots, and other company staff to maintain the health and improvement of tree plantations. This booklet provides other forest-sector employee profiles – forest manager, natural resource ecologist, research economist, logging crew, millwright – offering advice, short job-descriptions, and the various curves they took on their career path.
Imagine If is a podcast on climate resilience. Developed by the National Association for Environmental Education and National Geographic, Imagine If interviews change-makers affecting positive change on the world. Imagine If features high school students designing solutions to environmental issues in their communities. Listen with your students and inspire them to become change-makers in their community!
Water is one of our most important resources! Earth’s rivers form watersheds to carry freshwater to communities and all living species around the globe. These Beautiful Maps of the World’s Watersheds, artistically mapped by geographer Szűcs Róbert, highlight the world’s permanent and temporary streams and rivers. The stunning images depict the dominant drainage systems of the world’s water.
Go on an adventure to learn more about innovations being made to protect and manage clean water! Produced by EarthEcho International, the video Water By Design: Water from Afar investigates reservoirs of water and the technology employed to measure and maintain it. One example examines how NASA uses innovative technology to measure snow and represent the availability of fresh water that comes from snow melts. Check out the video to learn even more about how water is stored, filtered, and brought to your home. EarthEcho’s Educator Resources are a collection of videos, lesson plans, and other materials designed to support high-quality classroom experiences and assist educators as they equip young people to explore and protect their local natural resources.
Did you know that indoor air can be up to 100 times more polluted than outside air due to the accumulation of volatile organic compound (VOC) levels caused by chemical cleaning agents? Have students investigate the impact of common cleaning products on their environment, learn about “green cleaning,” and how to create their very own non-toxic cleaning products to use at home or in the classroom. The EP Cleaners’ Eco-Friendly Guide to Cleaning provides student with everything they need to start “green cleaning.”
There are over 7,000 school gardens across the nation and you can have one at your own school! This fact sheet from USDA’s Farm to School program provides successful gardening examples and tips in PreK-12 school settings.
Videos from California Academy of Sciences explore today’s environmental issues related to water use, from water shortage to waste water recycling. Intended for middle school students, these short videos come with background information for better understanding. You can extend the concepts covered by facilitating a student-led discussion or making connections to the Next Generation Science Standards.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s interactive water cycle shows the various stages, actors, and components of the water cycle. There are three different versions of this resource for various ages as well as several languages.
Have you thought about trying crowdfunding to help get a GreenSchools project off the ground? Or reaching out to your community to find advocates and volunteers? The ioby (in our back yards) crowd-resourcing platform can connect you with funding and support. Whether it’s updating your school garden, adding a cafeteria composting program, or teaching students about renewables, crowdfunding can be an effective tool for getting more parents and neighbors invested in your green school work. Anyone with a great idea for their community can collect tax-deductible donations, find volunteers, and access one-on-one customized fundraising coaching on ioby.org. This national nonprofit crowdfunding platform is designed for projects that make schools and neighborhoods more sustainable, healthy, connected and livable.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense Kids website teaches elementary and middle level students about the importance of water and why we need to conserve it. Test knowledge with an online animation, or identify simple water solutions to use water wisely.
Looking for ways to bring sustainability projects to your school? Use the Sustainability in Schools Game with your middle and high school students to explore the cost-benefits. The game includes 45 cards covering a range of sustainability projects that could be implemented in your own school, along with video instructions and critical thinking questions to get your students thinking.
These WetlandsLIVE webcasts, brought to you by the U.S. Forest Service, offer a closer look at the link between water and land and the benefits that these resources provide to people and the environment.
Webinars, online resources, and a webcast instill an appreciation and understanding of freshwater in students.
This issue of the Natural Inquirer, a science education journal aimed at middle school students, is filled with engaging articles about the future of aquatic animals, urban forests, wildlife, freshwater, and forests and rangelands.
Information from the U.S. Forest Service on water, including a water cycle poster and water facts.
Take a virtual tour to investigate the water-saving opportunities in each area of your home. Click on each location to learn about it and get specific advice.
This site, from the Water Education Foundation, provides graphics and text on topics including the water cycle, surface water vs. groundwater, the Earth’s water supply, and water conservation. Their mission is to create a better understanding of water issues and to help resolve water resource problems through educational programs.
This online tool can be used to calculate an individual’s water footprint.
The GRACE Water Program is home to the Water Footprint Calculator, which estimates the water you use directly from the tap as well as the “virtual water” that goes into producing your food, clothing, and more. The program provides tools, tips and information on water conservation.
This U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Water Science School website offers information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps, and an interactive center where you can share your opinions and test your water knowledge.
The Safe Drinking Water Foundation is a Canadian organization that provides teaching resources which relate water use to science, social studies, and math.
A “Green Jobs” curriculum and activity guide funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Job Corps Office, and the Conservation Education Program.
This interactive water cycle diagram produced by the US Geological Survey and the United Nations allows you to “mouse around” the parts of the water cycle and view explanations, pictures, and more. Available for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students, the diagram introduces an increasing number of terms at each level. PDF and JPG versions of the diagrams are also available for download and printing.
Using Scratch, educators of all ages and levels can program interactive stories, games, and animations and share their creations in an online community. Click on For Educators to access tips and resources for using Scratch in the classroom, including an introductory video, how-to tutorials, and a webinar. Teachers can also join the ScratchEd community to connect and collaborate with other educators using Scratch.
Use this Rooted in Math infographic from NEEF to make some quick calculations, such as the number of gallons of water you use every time you take a shower, or the pounds of CO2 emissions by a lightbulb.
Imagine this. Students, teachers, and administrators working together to achieve a common goal – improving the environmental quality and sustainability of school campuses. Now imagine …
Get learners excited about sustainability with Earth Science Week activities you can try with your classroom, complete with recommended grade levels and relevant science standards!
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