Gene Blevins/ReutersA tornado in Kansas last week. A new poll suggests the public feels that global warming is real.
Sunday will be the 42nd annual Earth Day celebration. Here are 10 ideas for commemorating the day, observed each year on April 22, or exploring issues related to the environment in the classroom or home on any day of the year.
When was the first Earth Day (PDF), and what major themes did it address? Are these themes still relevant today? How has Earth Day changed since 1970? In the past five or 10 years? Since the year in which you were born? How had public attitudes and environmental concerns changed by the time Earth Day hit 20 and “shed its humble roots”? How has going global shifted its focus? And how has “green” turned into big business 40 years later?
After searching for Earth Day coverage over the years in the Times archives, students make posters intended to aesthetically and thematically represent Earth Day celebrations from various years.
Alternatively, they investigate who coordinated the first Earth Day and what personal experiences shaped his attitude about preserving the environment. They then reflect on what factors have influenced how they consider the environment and make posters representing what Earth Day means to them.
What do you know about Earth Day and the environment? Students test their knowledge with our student crosswords about Earth Day or global warming.
Or, students create quizzes intended to test others’ knowledge of major environmental events since 1940. Another way to do the quiz is to list the events on the board and have students try to put them in chronological order.
To follow up, ask students how they might get to know the natural features of the place where they live, like rivers, lakes, woodlands, fields, rock formations or even mountains. Can they identify the common plant and animal species that live in the community? Have them annotate a map of the neighborhood around your school with these features and note the species you would expect to find there.
If possible, take your class on a sense of place field trip, using tools like Environment Canada’s Urban BioKit or Nature BioKit as guides for students to complete as you walk around your school’s neighborhood or to a nearby park.
After their exploration, students read the Scientist at Work blog post “Biodiversity, and Green Slugs, in Action,” noting the number of species the author lists in her column. Using this column as inspiration, they then write a similar essay on their experience of the sense of place walk.
A growing number of scientists and conservationists suggest that the best way to preserve and protect the Earth is to focus less on restoring degraded lands to a former, “pristine” condition and more on preserving what we can while accepting that people are a part of Earth’s ecosystems. After reading the Op-Ed “Hope in the Age of Man,” students discuss its main ideas: what is the “Anthropocene,” and why do some environmentalists see it as a “disaster”? What do the authors have to say about it? Do students agree with the authors’ assertion that “We can accept the reality of humanity’s reshaping of the environment without giving up in despair”?
Alternatively, use our lesson “Will It Happen Again? Examining Mass Extinctions on Earth” to explore the perspective some scientists hold that humans are responsible for a major extinction on Earth.
What actions can you take to provide shelter for wildlife in your community? As a class or as a school community, consider following the National Wildlife Federation’s guidelines for building a Schoolyard Habitat. Students might encourage their families to use native plants in their own gardens at home.
Or, taking a page from City Room’s Hawk Cam project, they monitor a local family of birds or other species and blog about their observations and provide tips for how local people can help animal and plant life thrive.
Students assess risks in their regions like rising sea levels and flooding as well as extreme weather and how public opinion about the connections between climate change and these risks help shape politics.
Students can also use the Times Topics pages on global warming and climate change to brush up on the latest news and provide their classmates with regular updates.
You might also take a look at Andrew C. Revkin’s Dot Earth blog posts “What’s A Science Teacher to Do?” and “Climate in Classrooms” or the editorial “Pseudoscience and Tennessee’s Classrooms.” Why is climate change – and the teaching of it in school – hotly debated? Where do you stand? What is your school or district’s policy?
Use our lesson “How Green Is My School? Conducting an Energy Audit” to determine the school’s use of energy.
Next, students read up on green building projects like the energy- and carbon-neutral headquarters of Seattle’s Bullitt Foundation, which is headed up by Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day observation, and net-zero energy buildings. They identify some commercial buildings that meet this standard or have achieved other aspects of high performance buildings. They then brainstorm and propose ways to make their homes or schools achieve a net-zero energy balance.
Students explore the concept of geoengineering, or developing technological solutions to climate change caused by human activity. Are geoengineering approaches more feasible than those meant to limit the emission of greenhouse gases? Should we pursue some of these methods, like deflecting sunlight away from earth? What are some potential pitfalls to geoengineering? How might simpler solutions, like installing cool roofs, help mitigate atmospheric warming? How environmentally friendly are so-called “green” products? Hold a classroom debate.
How is the environment represented in entertainment and culture? What messages do these aspects of popular culture send? What celebrities are associated with environmentalism, and what impact does their activism have? Students choose a specific film, television show, magazine feature or other aspect of culture that features nature or the environment to assess and analyze for its messages and effectiveness at fostering awareness.
Because my family moves around alot it made me think of all the Earth Day celebrations that my schools have done, sometimes we did a green up day and others we had a picnic outside in a local deer park. My mom told me a little about Earth day when she was younger. It was really interesting to learn.
However a long ago it was… I vividly remember each student getting a packet of lima bean seeds. It was our MISSION to successfully grow the plant throughout the rest of the year. This was when I visually learned about how plants literally learn towards sunlight.