Site Guide: Environmental Science
Find resources and teaching materials such as visualizations and tools, and effective teaching methods from SERC projects and collaborators for teaching about environmental science in the classroom or lab.
Jump down to: General Collections & Resources |Teaching Activities | Visualizations and Tools | Related Site Guides
Click the images above to browse teaching activities and course descriptions related to Environmental Science topics. Collections are contributed by faculty and may include service learning projects, writing assignments, field trips, course descriptions, and syllabi.
General Collections & Resources
The InTeGrate Project - This project takes an
interdisciplinary approach to teaching about the Earth in the context of sustainability. It includes resources on
Teaching about Food as well as
teaching modules including
Sustainable Agriculture,
Soils, Systems and Society, and
Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources, among
others.
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) - The CLEAN project, a part of the National Science Digital Library, provides a reviewed collection of resources coupled with the tools to enable an online community to share and discuss teaching about climate and energy science.
Teaching Environmental Issues and the Affective Domain (from On the Cutting Edge The Affective Domain in the Classroom) - This web page offers some strategies to teach environmental topics, particularly controversial ones, without coming up against affective barriers to learning. The page also offers a collection of examples, teaching methods that work well with teaching about controversial environmental issues, and a list of related links and resources for further information.
Teaching Climate Change (from On the Cutting Edge) - This site allows educators to locate and use the best resources for teaching about Earth's climate system and the changing climate over the past one million years. Here you will find teaching activities, courses, workshop outcomes, teaching ideas and links to useful teaching resources.
The Hurricane - Climate Change Collection (from On the Cutting Edge) - Large hurricanes have captured the attention of many citizens in recent years and prompts the inevitable question about the relationship between climate change and hurricanes. This website focuses on recent hurricanes and the latest climate change research to engage students and help them understand the central issues of climate change and hurricane activity.
Curriculum for the Bioregion - This is a network of educators in Washington State who are
integrating sustainability and place-based content in a broad array of undergraduate courses. The site hosts collections of
teaching activities,
course descriptions, and
essays with approaches to curriculum integration and engaging pedagogies for both classroom- and community-based learning.
Teaching about Food - From the InTeGrate project, every student has a personal connection with food. Effective pedagogy will expand their thinking beyond their own "face value" experiences and consider the food supply from broader perspectives such as society, economics, environment and resource use. Explore
themes and strategies for integrating food topics in the classroom and gain ideas from these
teaching materials.
Teaching about Water – From the InTeGrate project, topics related to water transcend just about all fields of study including the sciences, human health, sociology, environmental justice, and philosophy. There are numerous pathways to introduce water and sustainability themes into a wide range of contexts. Examples include: water availability, water management, water rights, and water quality. Explore themes and strategies for integrating water topics in the classroom from these
teaching materials.
Teaching about Energy in Geoscience Courses (from On the Cutting Edge)- Energy plays a big role in current climate science, as well as in policy and economics as it relates to climate change. This website contains course descriptions, an activity collection, visualizations, recommended books and websites, workshop outcomes and more.
Developing Student Understanding of Complex Systems (from On the Cutting Edge) - This collection begins with a detailed explanation of the
characteristics of a complex system which include many interdependent variables, feedback loops, chaotic behavior, etc. The collection also presents
pedagogical strategies,
activities, and
course descriptions,
essays and much more about addressing complex systems.
Recommended Web Sites for Teaching Climate Change (from On the Cutting Edge Teaching about Climate Change) - This page contains quick links to handy sites for climate change information. Includes research summaries, data sets, imagery and carbon footprint calculators.
EarthLabs - This extensive collection is designed to assist educators in teaching how the earth system functions through five Earth Science units;
Corals,
Cryosphere,
Drought,
Fisheries, and
Hurricanes. Earthlabs contains
rationale for teaching with an Earth System approach, goals and objectives for each of the five units, and several lab or hands-on activities for each unit.
Interactive Webinars for Teachers of Grades 6-12 - Part of the CLEAN collection, this page includes recordings and slides from webinar series aimed at middle and high school teachers. The webinars addressed a variety of topics within climate and energy. Each session was designed for teachers to gather information about science, see example teaching materials from the CLEAN collection, and consider classroom strategies that are particularly suited to these topics.
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Teaching Activities
Experience-Based Environmental Projects (from Starting Point) - Experience-based environmental learning presents an opportunity to learn through one's own lifestyle and actions. Students apply classroom topics to realize that although issues may be global or regional, they ultimately have roots at the individual level. An example is the
lifestyle project.
The Earth Exploration Toolbook - The Earth Exploration Toolbook has a number of data-rich activities designed for high school classrooms including
chapters related to atmosphere, biosphere, climate, Earth cycles, oceans, and more.
CISMI Interdisciplinary Resources - This site offers
case studies and a variety of
teaching and curriculum development materials for multiple topics in biology, including
interdisciplinary biology and
environmental science.
Carbon Footprint Collection (from On the Cutting Edge Teaching about Climate Change) - This collection contains carbon footprint exercises appropriate for introductory level students via ready-made footprint calculators, or left as open-ended calculations in upper level courses.
Teaching Public Policy in the Earth Sciences (from On the Cutting Edge) - Presents information and activities on incorporating public policy issues into science courses. Includes an extensive list of
web resources and several examples of
role playing scenarios that are useful for teaching about public policy.
Visualizations and Tools
Climate Change Visualizations (from On the Cutting Edge Teaching about Climate Change) - These pages were developed as a part of the Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations workshop and website. Each page presents quality visualizations on a particular topic in the geosciences, this one focuses on climate change visualizations. You can browse through the whole collection of visualization pages on the Teaching with Visualizations website.
Visualizations about Hurricanes and Climate Change (from On the Cutting Edge The Hurricane-Climate Change Connection) - These pages were developed as a part of the Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations workshop and website. The quality visualizations provided on this site involve climate change and hurricanes.
Energy Visualizations (from On the Cutting Edge Teaching about Energy) - These visualizations include videos, illustrations, maps, etc. that can support teaching about energy in the classroom. They involve fossil fuel formation and how fuels are converted to energy, resources about nuclear energy, and alternative energy.
Atmospheric science and climatology data sets (from Using Data in the Classroom) - These sites provide on-line or downloadable tools for visualizing or manipulating data or datasets that can be used in the classroom.
Related Site Guides
Sustainability Site Guide - This site guide provides access to resources for teaching sustainability concepts across a wide range of disciplines and courses.
Climate Change and Global Warming - This site guide provides access to resources for teaching climate change and global warming concepts across the sites accessible through SERC.
Earth Systems Science - This site guide provides access to resources for teaching earth systems science concepts across the sites accessible through SERC.
Energy - This site guide provides access to resources for teaching energy concepts across a wide range of disciplines and courses.
Oceanography Site Guide - This site guide will show you where to find resources such as visualizations, activities, and pedagogical approaches for teaching concepts about oceanography.
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