The District’s Education Specialist can come into your classroom to teach about the environment. Presentations are designed to meet science indicators and may also integrate social studies, mathematics and language arts. Longer presentations are hands-on and shorter ones may include a worksheet, story, craft or game. Each presentation is geared to a specific grade. Choose from the classroom presentation list or have the Education Specialist design especially for your classroom.
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| Putting on Pollutant Pounds |
Grades 5-8 |
| Human activity has impacted the environment including changing the climate. Students will calculate the amount of pollutants emitted for their energy needs, and they will discuss how actions and activities impact the environment. Students will brainstorm solutions. |
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1 hour |
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| Focus on Carbon |
Grades 5-8 |
| Carbon is the number one greenhouse gas that is causing the earth to warm and the climate to change. Students will learn about the carbon cycle, be able to distinguish between carbon sinks and carbon sources, compare carbon emission rates of several countries and learn how simple actions can combat climate change. |
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70 minutes |
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The Big Three Greenhouse Gases |
Grades 5-8 |
The top three greenhouse gases are forms of carbon, methane and nitrogen that are naturally occurring. Through human activity these gases are present in higher concentrations compared to pre human history. Students will learn about cycles and properties of each of the gases through a series of several active games. Students will learn different choices they can make to lower or raise their emissions of greenhouse gases. |
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70 minutes |
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| Worms |
Grades 3-4 |
Worms help break down organic matter and can be used to reduce garbage going to landfills. Students will study a red wiggler worm and record in a worm book about how they move, what they eat, etc. Students will be able to share facts about worms, their attitude towards them and benefits of a worm farm. |
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40 min.
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| Compost/Decomposition |
Grades K-2 |
| Composting slowly changes once living materials into healthy soil, which help plants grow. Students will learn about non-living and living materials, how living materials decompose, what can be composted and the organisms that help with the composting process. |
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40 mins.
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| Edible Compost |
Grades 1-4 |
| The proper amount of greens and browns are needed in a compost pile to have organic matter decompose properly. Students will learn the ingredients needed to build a compost pile by creating an edible model of a compost pie. |
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40 mins.
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| Compost and Soils |
Grades 3-4 |
| Students will learn the composition and properties of compost, sand, soil and mulch through testing these materials. Students will construct a compost pile to observe organic waste decomposing over time. |
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60 mins.
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| Composting Organics |
Grade 5-7 |
| Composting fruits, leaves, grasses and other organic wastes create humus, which is high in nutrients. Students will learn about how organic matter decomposes and how nutrients are cycled to be reused by other plants. |
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60 mins.
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| Nature & Human Cycles |
Grades K-3 |
| Follow the example of natural cycles to live more in harmony with the earth. Students will discuss several natural cycles and how they can mimic nature by reusing natural resources through recycling. |
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30 mins.
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| Econo-Puzzle* |
Grades 2-3 |
| Natural resources are used to make products, but most people throw them away after one use. Students will examine cycles of goods by creating a diagram of how goods are produced and finding out what happens to them. |
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30 mins.
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Grades 4-10 |
| Students will work together as a team through a series of group initiatives or games that teach environmental concepts. A large gym or outdoor area would be needed. |
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60-90 mins.
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| Energy Bills |
Grades 1-2 |
| Sun, food, gas and coal create electric energy and heat. Students will learn how energy is used, and they will add up the cost of their energy habits and brainstorm ideas on how simple actions can conserve energy. |
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60 mins.
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| Energy Wheel |
Grades 5-6 |
| Energy comes from renewable sources like the sun and nonrenewable sources like coal. Students will create an energy resource wheel, and they will discuss ways to extend energy use through conservation and efficiency. |
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60 mins.
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| Far Out Fossil Fuels |
Grades 5-6 |
| Gasoline is a fossil fuels made from crude oil. Students will learn how fossil fuels are formed and processed into other energy sources. They will also discover how to conserve nonrenewable energy resources. |
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60 mins.
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| Town Meeting |
Grades 5-7 |
| A town meeting has been called to decide what “land-use” plan will be the best for the town’s forest. Students as a team will design a “land-use” plan for local forest resources based on environmental and economic needs, then they will present their plan for a vote. |
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90 mins. |
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Household Hazardous Waste |
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| Harmful Home |
Grades K-3 |
| Many products found in the home can be dangerous to children, adults and pets. Students will recognize symbols and words that indicate hazardous substances and create a recipe book for safe household substitutes. |
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40 mins.
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| Home, Safe Home* |
Grades 4-6 |
| Cleaning will keep the house neat and tidy, but some products used in cleaning may be hazardous to people and the environment. Students will learn the difference between toxic and nontoxic home products and create a green cleaning wheel for environmentally safe cleaning products. |
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40 mins.
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| What Home Haz Envirochallenge |
Grades 7-9 |
| Harmful products are used in just about every room of a house. Students will learn about household hazardous wastes and how they effect humans and the environment through a game. |
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60-90 mins. |
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| Building An Edible Landfill |
Grades 2-6 |
| Trash is hauled to a landfill and forgotten. Students learn about how a landfill is constructed and the environmental problems of their trash when constructing a landfill, which when completed they can eat. |
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60 mins.
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| What's In the School's Trash |
Grades 4-12 |
We’re going to be sorting and weighing school garbage and we’ll learn about what students are throwing away in the classroom and the cafeteria. This will demonstrate the school’s recycling opportunity and help you build a case for recycling. |
| Finer Liner* |
Grades 5-6 |
| When trash is put in a landfill, it creates environmental and human health problems. Students learn the environmental problems their trash creates and how landfills are constructed. They will build a landfill model in a cup and test if it will leak. |
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60 mins. |
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| Wartville Wizard |
Grades Pre-K-6 |
| Litter can make the neighborhood look trashy. Students will learn about litter through listening to the wonderful story of the Wartville Wizard, and they will make a bracelet out of pop bottles to remind them to not litter. |
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40 mins.
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| Fishing for Litter |
Grades K-1 |
| Litter is caused by careless actions of people who do not take care of their trash properly. Students will learn the difference between good and bad environmental habits and learn the seven sources of litter. |
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30 mins.
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| Map Out Litter |
Grades 1-2 |
| Litter can be found almost everywhere. Students will learn about basic map parts, place litter on a map of a park based on directions, and discuss what litter can do to the environment. |
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40 mins.
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| Lasting Litter Timeline |
Grades 4-5 |
| Litter has a negative impact on the environment, especially since some litter will not decompose. Students will learn how long litter takes to degrade, and they will brainstorm action steps for a school litter prevention program. |
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40 mins. |
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| The Costly Thing* |
Grades 5-6 |
| Pollution results when factories use energy, water and natural resources to manufacture products. Students will assess pollution values for manufacturing processes, and they will determine the environmental impact of using recycled materials in manufacturing. |
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50 mins.
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| Pollution on the Move* |
Grades 5-6 |
| Pollution negatively impacts the environment and can create human health problems. Student will identify sources of man-made pollutants and how pollution enters the environment. |
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40 mins. |
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| Resource Tree |
Grades K-1 |
| Whatever humans use come from nature and it is called a natural resource. Students will differentiate between resources that are natural and man-made, and they will discuss how reduce, reuse and recycle can conserve resources. |
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30 mins.
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| Puzzling Plastics |
Grades 1-3 |
| Plastics are found more and more in the trash, partly because only two types of plastic can be recycled. Students will learn about characteristics of plastics, how they are made and which types can be recycled. An optional extension is to create shrinking plastic crafts out of plastic carry out containers. |
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50 mins. each
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| Follow That Bottle |
Grade 2 |
| Recycled plastic soda bottles can be made into several products such as clothing and carpeting. Students will discuss how plastic bottles are recycled into new products. They will learn its recycling process and color cartoon pictures to create a book on recycling plastic bottles. |
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30 mins.
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| Resource Bingo |
Grades 3-4 |
| Natural resources can be categorized by more than just animal, vegetable and mineral. Students will brainstorm what products are made from sand, metal, fossil fuels, animals and plants and apply the list during a bingo game. |
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40 mins.
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| Mining Expedition* |
Grades 4-6 |
| The origin of all materials is natural resources that come from the earth. Students will learn about mining natural resources by extracting chocolate out of a cookie, and they will calculate the financial and environmental cost of obtaining natural resources from the earth. |
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60 mins.
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| The Paper Factory* |
Grades 4-6 |
| Paper makes up 80-90% of what schools send as trash to the landfill, although most of the paper is recyclable. Groups of students will make paper while learning the amount of energy and monetary value of the materials they used during the manufacturing process. |
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60 mins.
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| Plastics |
Grade 9 |
| Plastic was invented over 100 years ago, but only has been widely used in the last 25 years. Students will learn about how plastics were invented, their properties and why more and more plastic products are in today’s garbage. Students will discuss cultural and environmental impacts of plastics. |
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50 mins.
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| Dwindling Resources |
Grade 10 |
| Americans use 120 pounds of resources everyday from food, clothing to transportation. Students will decide how to develop a town by using its natural resources and finding a solution for their trash. Students will discuss how people can affect the environment and the quality of life. |
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60 mins. |
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| The Day the Trash Went Out to Play |
Grades Pre-K-K |
Read a great story of trash coming to life and how the town’s people cleaned it up. Students will sort items that are either recycled or trash. |
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30 mins.
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| Where From?, Where Go? |
Grades K-1 |
| When people recycle, natural resources are used again and again. Students will learn that products come from natural resources and they will determine which materials can be recycled. |
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30 mins.
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| The 3 Rs |
Grades K-1 |
| Reduce, reuse, recycle are ways to decrease the amount of trash going to landfills and it is one way students can be involved with taking care of the earth. Students learn what can be recycled in their community by sorting a trash bucket and demonstrating ideas on how to reduce, reuse and recycle. |
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30 mins.
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| Sir Johnny Recycling Adventure |
Grades K-2 |
| Students will listen to a story, on why people should recycle and how paper is made. Students then can make one piece of recycled paper. |
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60 mins.
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| Mini-MRF |
Grade 5-7 |
| A MRF, or material recovery facility, sorts recyclables into categories through the use of machines and human labor. Students will test materials for properties that can be used to demonstrate how to sort recyclables. |
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90 mins.
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| Recycling Basics |
Grades 3-9 |
| Recycling is really easy. Students will sort trash to learn what can be recycled and the benefits of recycling.
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20 mins. |
| Recycle the World |
Grades 6-12 |
| Besides being good for the environment, recycling is good for the economy. Students learn about the manufacturing process and will have the world in their hands as they learn what effects the economics of manufacturing. |
30 mins. |
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| Making A Garbage Pie |
Grades 1-2 |
| The garbage that is thrown away can be categorized to into groups for research purposes. Students will learn about paper, plastic, metal, glass, yard waste and food waste by creating a garbage pie. The students will learn what can be recycled. |
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50 mins.
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| Secrets in a Garbage Can* |
Grades 4-5 |
| Unearth trash like an archeologist. Students will be able to explain what discarded materials might reveal about a family or society and their relationship to the environment when they unearth artifacts from “the back forty.” |
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40 mins.
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| Trash for Around the World* |
Grades 4-6 |
| The United States is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. Students will examine trash and interpret data about global solid waste practices. |
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50 mins.
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| Garbage Games |
Grades 6-9 |
| Learning about garbage can be as fun as talking trash. Students will learn about garbage and related environmental problems when they take turns answering questions for a point for their team. |
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40 mins. |
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| Packing Zero |
Grades K-6 |
| School lunch time is waste time. Students learn how to pack lunches to minimize the amount of trash that they throw away. |
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30 mins.
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| A Pig’s Tale |
Grades K-2 |
| This is a pig story with a twist. Students will listen to the story and will create a craft from trash students saved such as creating a collage from old magazine pictures. |
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50 mins.
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| Pass, on the Plastic Bag |
Grades 1-8 |
| Cities around the country and the world are banning plastic bags. Learn why plastic bags are bad for the environment. Students will design their own bag and promote the use of reusable shopping bags. |
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70 mins. |
| Environmental Shopping |
Grades 4-6 |
| Peoples’ choices about what to buy affect the environment. Students will brainstorm ways to reduce waste and help the environment. |
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60 mins. |
* Activities based on Windows on Waste units
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Note: If you are looking to integrate topics above or include other environmental issues, our Education Specialist can design a class to meet your needs and encourage students’ retention of information in a fun, dynamic way. |
