Today is my first day back to school and my 12th year teaching. (No, I'm not actually typing this August 5th, I scheduled it out in advance. Because we all know the first day is EXHAUSTING and I'll be in bed by 8pm. Plus this is my first back-to-school ever being pregnant, so maybe I'll be in bed by 7...)

But as I look back on the past 12 years I know for a fact I wouldn't have made it through all those tough times without some amazing colleagues and mentors. There were days during my first year I would go home and cry and think "I just can't do this." And even when I switched schools and had 5 years of experience under my belt I felt all of those feelings again. If your significant other isn't a teacher, you can vent all you want and they can try and be empathetic but they just won't get it. You need to find a mentor to help you maintain your sanity. Someone asked me once on my instagram to do a blog post about finding a teacher mentor and I feel like back to school season is the perfect time to discuss. So here we go!

HOW TO FIND A TEACHER MENTOR:
1. If you are a new teacher, this could be (and should be) something you ask during the interview process. Does the school provide you with a mentor teacher? Will you have a structured grade-level support team? What resources will they provide you as a new teacher? I promise you won't sound needy, you will sound like you want to be prepared.

2. Many districts have a science content specialist. They get paid to help you teach science well, so utilize them! My district also has something called a "professional development specialist" who runs monthly PD sessions for new teachers and sits in on lessons once a quarter. Don't be afraid to send emails, ask them to come sit in on a lesson or two, or offer guidance on how to better introduce a new topic.

3. If your school doesn't have a specified person to help new teachers, go ask an administrator for some recommendations. Have something in mind you want to improve- maybe classroom management. Go ask your administrator which teachers on your campus have exceptional classroom management and then give up your prep one day (I know.... but it will be worth it, I promise) to go watch them teach. If you are afraid to approach them yourself, see if your administrator will send your colleague an email asking for permission for you to come observe, and have them cc you on the email. Even as a veteran teacher, I still have things I can improve and I benefit greatly from watching others teach.

4. Utilize your grade level or department team. Hopefully your school sets aside some time during the week for you to meet with your grade level team or department. Observe who has a personality similar to you that you know you would get along with and make an effort to get to know them. During your meetings, don't be afraid to ask questions on how they teach a concept, how they manage the student that ALWAYS needs to go to the bathroom, or how they stay on top of grading. Not every suggestion will work for you, but it's good to get different ideas and perspectives.

YOU'VE FOUND A MENTOR, BUT NOW WHAT?
I know the first year of teaching I had people always checking in on me asking "do you need help or have any questions?" My response was typically "I'm sure I'll have questions... but I don't even know what to ask yet." It's overwhelming. So here are some tips on things you should ask for help on in the first few weeks or months of school:

1. Ask about how to handle crisis situations. This includes fire drills, lock downs, or even a kid going crazy in your class. Who are you supposed to call?

2. Ask for classroom management tips. This could include: how to handle bathroom breaks, kids that constantly blurt out answers, the kid who can't sit still, or the student who can't stay awake no matter how engaging your lesson is. Veteran teachers have dealt with all of these situations and can likely give you some helpful tips.

3. Dress code. Does your school have a student dress code that you need to enforce? What should you do if students are breaking dress code? Is there a teacher dress code you should know about? At my first school I got hired mid-year so I missed all of the beginning of the year meetings. One Friday I wore flip flops to school (I know, not the most professional decision I ever made) but got in trouble for breaking the teacher dress code.... which I had no idea about. Ask!

4. Timing and pacing of lessons is hard. Ask what other colleagues do if class finishes a few minutes early. Do they allow free time? Do they have any fun activities or ideas to share? (Here is an idea of what I do if class finishes a few minutes early).

5. Ask them to help you set up your gradebook. How often do they put in grades? What categories do they use? Is there a standard school policy? Do you have to turn in progress reports?

6. The first time you need to call a parent for a behavior issue can be scary. Ask them to sit with you the first time you call home and give you some pointers. (Tip: don't just call home for your problem students, call home when kids do something stellar too! It will make their day).

7. At my first school we had something called "think time" which is essentially "time out" time. This is for the student that didn't do anything bad enough to warrant calling the office or a referral, but is driving you crazy and knows exactly how to push your buttons. Sometimes having a 5 minute break from that student is enough for you to regain your composure and focus on the other students. Ask a neighboring teacher if they have a spare desk in their classroom you could use as a "think time" desk. If a kid was driving me nuts, I'd send them over with a form to fill out that had them answer a few questions reflecting on their behavior. Once they felt ready to come back and re-join the lesson, they would. (Tip: try and find a teacher of a different grade level to be your think time buddy. If the other class is the same grade level, your think time student will probably have friends in there and become a distraction).

8. Ask your mentor teacher to come watch you practice a lesson before your observation. They can give you feedback and tips to score well on the evaluation rubric.

9. Ask for lesson and lab ideas. If you are teaching a concept you aren't completely familiar with, ask someone in your content area how they approach it or what labs they use to supplement the lesson.

10. There will be a time when you wake up with a fever and think "OMG I don't have sub plans ready, I'll have to go in with this 104 degree fever!" Have an emergency sub plan ready and on your desk in case this happens. Ask about the process for calling a substitute teacher. How many sick days do you have? Do they roll over to the next school year if you don't use them? Are there rules about how many sick days you can take in a row without providing a doctors note?

While the first year is tough, I promise it gets easier- especially when you have supportive people beside you. If you have any questions or need some more specific tips, leave them in the comments!
(If you are a new teacher and want to see my top 10 tips for the first year, you can read them here!)

It’s almost time to head back to school and I would love to help prepare you for the 19-20 school year! I know teachers spend hundreds of dollars every year supplying their classrooms with resources and I would love to help ease that burden. Me and Bethany over at Science With Mrs. Lau have teamed up to offer you some awesome resources to help get you through the school year. You won’t want to miss this!

First, we are giving away TWO $75 TpT gift cards! You can enter to win them in the rafflecopter below (you only need to enter on one of our blogs).

Next, I’ll be sending 4 lucky winners my mega writing prompt bundle that has over 130 writing prompts that cover all science content areas. Writing prompts are a great way to get students thinking and writing about scientific concepts. If your administration is pushing for more literacy in your classroom, this resource is for you!

(By signing up you are subscribing to my email list, where you will receive 1-2 emails per month with teacher tips, helpful websites and links, and classroom freebies)

Once you’ve entered my giveaway, be sure to head over to Bethany’s blog to enter to win her year-long chemistry or biology doodle diagram bundle! If you’ve been wanting to try out doodle notes this resource has everything you need. 

We hope you have a great school year!
Becca and Bethany

If you read my blog post on recommended summer science reads, you saw my confession that I'm not generally a big non-fiction reader. I love to read, but fiction is my go-to.

As I was compiling a science book list for students and teachers, I kept seeing and getting recommended The Serengeti Rules by Sean Carroll (If you've used any HHMI videos in your class, you know who he is). I decided to check it out from the library and I'm so glad I did. The first section of the book discusses cellular rules of regulation. When I first started reading I was thinking "I thought this was an ecology book!" but what's fascinating is he relates cellular rules of regulation to ecological rules of regulation in later sections of the book. So many concepts cross over. For example, cells maintain balance using homeostasis, ecosystems maintain balance with carrying capacity. Cells populations are regulated from the bottom up by food availability, and so are animal populations. Cellular process such as enzyme activity are regulated by  negative feedback, while populations are regulated by negative feedback in the form of trophic cascades. It was cool to see the cross over and I kept thinking "this book is perfect for honors and AP biology students!"

As I set out to look for supplemental student and teacher resources for this book, I came across the official version published by the Princeton Press. There is a ton of great information included in that document, but it didn't suit my teaching style. I wanted students to pull out the main ideas and have clear graphic organizers to fill out as they read the book without getting caught up in the nitty gritty details. So I went back through the book and created my own resource for students that is more user friendly. It includes writing prompts, graphic organizers, chapter discussion questions, and more. Below are some images of what the resource looks like (page borders differ depending on if they are a pre-reading, during reading, or post-reading activity).

HHMI also has some additional resources that supplement the book that you can find on their website. And most exciting.... they are coming out with a Serengeti Rules documentary some time this fall! The trailer looks fascinating and I can't wait to see the full movie. Keep your eyes peeled- the HHMI website  frequently offers free DVD's to classroom teachers.

I hope you enjoy the book!

*If you are already familiar with how CRISPR works to make GMOs and just want the teaching resources, hop down below the Youtube video*

Some people are terrified of the phrase "Genetically modified organism," yet they are literally everywhere. Roughly 75% of the foods in grocery stores have been genetically modified in some way. While creating a GMO used to be a long time consuming process, the development of CRISPR technology has made the process much faster and cheaper. As CRISPR technology becomes more refined, GMOs are going to become more common, not less, and we need to teach students about them.

How CRISPR Works
I recently was able to attend a seminar talk at Arizona State University by Jennifer Doudna, who helped develop CRISPR technology. If you aren't familiar with how CRISPR works, here's the gist:

• Cas-9 is an enzyme that is able to cut DNA at specific locations. When DNA is cut, repair enzymes come in to repair the broken DNA. When the repair happens, a new segment of DNA can be inserted into the severed location.
• Scientists can locate DNA genes in the genome that they want to edit. By attaching a complementary RNA guide to the Cas-9, the enzyme will locate the gene of interest and either delete it or edit it by adding a new segment of DNA (see video clip below).
• This technology opens the door to many cool possibilities such as eliminating disease, enhancing crop yields, and even modifying farm animal organs to make them more "human-like" for better transplant opportunities.
• One of the most exciting things Doudna mentioned was using CRISPR for point of care diagnostics. As of now, if you want to be tested for specific genes you carry it can cost thousands of dollars. With CRISPR technology, they can easily and inexpensively look for a specific gene and use a florescent tag to identify it. So awesome!
• Unfortunately, CRISPR opens the door to some ethical issues. Should we be allowed to modify the human genome? Is it okay to design our own babies? Should we only be allowed to modify somatic cells and not gametic cells? Should there be a committee approving these decisions? Since this is a relatively new technology, there aren't current regulations set in place. Even though Doudna and other scientists have urged people to not use CRISPR on reproductive cells, a scientist in China went ahead and modified human DNA in 2018. You can read more about it here.
• Some things we still don't know:
  • Scientists still don't know the long term reliability of CRISPR.
  • CRISPR works for single gene traits, but what about polygenic traits?
  • If we use CRISPR to try and eliminate a disease in somatic cells, will it still be successful or will it only be effective on gametic cells?

There are definitely still unanswered questions and perfecting that needs to happen before CRISPR becomes commonplace.

Alright, ready for some teaching resources?!

1. The website Unlocking Life's Code has a good overview of CRISPR and links to additional resources. You can check it out HERE.

2. This interactive from PBS shows students how GMOs can be made (this is not via CRISPR). I like that it is simple and easy to use. You can view the interactive HERE. HHMI has an interactive site showing how CRISPR works you can view HERE.

3. This New York Times article has a student reading and questions, along with a ton of helpful links to get you started with GMOs. You can find it here.

4. Want to try some GMO speed dating with your students? In this activity, students are given an organism card (they are either a donor or a recipient) and go on "speed dates" with other organisms and determine if they have any genes that would be beneficial in sharing. You can find the lesson HERE. Note: Having done this activity with students, I would recommend it for honors/AP students.

5. If you haven't seen the University of Buffalo's case studies, you need to check them out. They have a TON of great resources for free (you can pay an annual fee for the answer keys, but usually aren't necessary). They have a bunch of case studies relating to GMOs you can view HERE. I have done the golden rice debate with my students and it always works well.

6. A fun activity you can do is to bring in a bunch of foods from home and have students scan the barcodes with the "Now Find Organic and Non-GMO" app (available for free in the app store). I've found that not every food I scanned is in the app, so be sure to try it at home first.

7. I had my students read this article from Nature and we held a Socratic seminar. The article examines if we should be able to edit our children's genes. It was interesting to hear my student's viewpoints on the topic (the majority were firmly against any sort of gametic gene editing).

8. The University of Washington has a lesson on GM salmon that includes 4 different stakeholders for them to read about. You can check out the lesson HERE.

9. Since I teach a PBL style course, I came up with a Shark Tank project where students had to design a GMO and pitch it to a bunch of sharks (the panel was made of teachers and college professors). This lesson in my TpT store has an outline of the worksheets and activities I used (note: it is not a print and go daily unit, but a guide for the project).

10. If you have time to show a documentary, Food Evolution narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson is a great option that explores GM foods. While every documentary has a little bias, this is much less bias than Food Inc. and a better option. You can view the trailer below:

As I find more resources I will add them to the list. If you have any additional favorites, leave them in the comments!

Even though I have taught life science most of my career and not physical science, I still feel it is important for students to understand polarity and electronegativity. If students don't understand polarity, they won't understand why the cell membrane has a hydrophobic and hydrophilic region. Understanding polarity also helps them understand protein folding and so many other macromolecule concepts. Because of this, I spend time before my cells unit reviewing the periodic table, bonding, and polarity. Here are a list of some resources you may find helpful!

The website Middle School Chemistry has a ton of free chemistry lessons and labs aimed at lower secondary grades, including this one on why water is a polar molecule. You can check out the lab here.

This resource is a cartoon called "The Bare Essentials of Polarity" and uses polar bears and penguins to help students visually understand polarity and electronegativity. I use it every year and get so many "ah-ha" moments by the end. You can download the cartoon here.

Similar to the cartoon listed above, I created this review worksheet that uses a tug of war as an analogy for polarity. It would be a great homework assignment following your polarity lesson. You can check it out here.

If you have access to computers, PHET has a free interactive website where students can play around with and observe the polarity of different molecules. You can access the interactive here.

Want to add a little coloring to your polarity lesson? Check out this polarity color-by-number activity to give your students a bit of a brain break. You can find it here.

My friend at Science with Mrs. Lau created this free electronegativity reference page you can print and have students keep in their binders. You can download it here.

I haven't tried this last lab, but it looks like a blast! Students use food coloring, paper, and shaving cream to make observations about polar molecules. You can check it out here.

I hope one or two of those links are useful to you! If you have any other favorites, drop them in the comments, I'd love to check them out!

When we ask students to review each other's work and give feedback, we often hear...
"Why did you do that?" or
"It's just wrong." or
"It's good" (even when it's not).

Teaching students to give effective feedback is hard and takes a lot of student practice. And then more practice. If you are using project based learning in your classroom, peer feedback is a vital part of the process (you can read more about PBL here). But it's worth it when you get to the point where students give feedback that is meaningful and actionable, and you are receiving higher quality work at the end. It's going to save you a lot of grading time!

So, where do you begin?
1. Always begin by modeling what good feedback looks like.
Pass out a sample lab report, essay, or whatever assignment your class will be completing. Walk the students through the strengths and weaknesses of the assignment, and show them that feedback needs to be specific in order for the person to improve. Show them how it is possible to be honest and be kind at the same time.

2. Don't ask them to give feedback on everything all at once.
It can be overwhelming if a student gets back their lab report or essay and it is covered from top to bottom in red pen. Instead, beak it down into smaller chunks. On the first round of feedback, have students look for and highlight the thesis or hypothesis and write in tips to make it more clear. On the second round have them look for and highlight supporting details or data and write in any clarifying questions. On the third round they can check for grammatical errors.... you get the picture. By breaking it down into smaller, manageable chunks you are making it easier on both the student giving the feedback and the student receiving the feedback.

3. Feedback should be actionable.
Make sure that if students leave comments, they need to be actionable. If they just write "paragraph needs work" in the margin, that isn't helpful. Why does it need work? What specifically needs to be improved? If the feedback isn't clear, the author of the assignment can go back and ask "What did you mean when you wrote this?" and get some clarification.

4. Feedback should be timely.
One mistake is waiting until the very end of the assignment or project to do a round of peer evaluations. If the assignment is due on a Friday and you wait until Wednesday or Thursday to give feedback, it can be too late. Students are busy after school with jobs and sports and need time to make edits. By giving feedback multiple times along the way, it will save them a lot of frustration and time at the end. Also, plan ahead and build in class time for editing instead of having them do it all at home.

5. Feedback can be anonymous.
Sometimes students don't want to offend or hurt feelings when giving feedback, so they only leave nice comments instead of being completely honest. By providing methods of anonymous feedback such as sticky notes, gallery walks, or removing names and numbering the papers instead, you are allowing students to be more honest in their critique. That being said, you are opening the door to negative comments as well. Be sure to go over expectations with students prior to the activity, and if problems do arise, have a way to track down the offender (try different pen colors or group them in small groups to narrow down the possibilities).

I love this video of "Austin's Butterfly" and show it to my high school students even though it is of elementary kiddos. It shows the process of giving feedback where "they were specific but they weren't mean about it."

Sentence frames are also a great way for students to give structured feedback, especially when they don't know where to begin. If you would like to check out some FREE peer feedback forms I have used with my students, you can download them here.

At the end of every school year we end our life science curriculum with geologic time. It's one of my favorite units because I get to bust out my fossil collection (If you know me, that's a big deal).
It's hard to talk about geologic time, mass extinctions, and evolution of species without bringing up climate change. All these topics are fascinating but there aren't a ton of hands on labs you can do with them. I decided to try something different this year and make my own ice cores for students to analyze. Most students had never heard of ice cores, and when I asked them how we learn about shifts in climate I got a lot of blank stares. It was a great opportunity to bring up a new topic.

Some background on ice cores:

• The best ice cores are taken from places where the snow doesn't melt. Over the years the snow layers on top of each other, compacts, and freezes into thick layers of ice. 
• ​Ice cores are generally drilled from Antarctica and Greenland. The oldest ice cores date back to 800,000 years ago. 
  
• Ice core layers are similar to tree rings- new layers form on top of the last each year.
  
• When analyzing the layers, winter snow layers appear lighter than summer snow layers. This is because the snow melts slightly in the summer, refreezes, and is more dense than the winter layer. When we count years in an ice core, a light band and a dark band make up 1 year of snowfall (see image below).
• As snow falls, particles from the atmosphere get trapped in the snow. We can use this ash, pollen, and even radioactive atoms to make inferences about what occurred during that year. 
• Air bubbles are trapped in ice core layers. Scientists can melt small layers of ice cores, trap the gas that is released, and measure the gas components to infer what the climate was like the past 800,000 years. Higher levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane mean the climate was warmer.  
  

Overall the students enjoyed looking at their simulated ice cores and I was glad I got to throw in an extra lab during our geologic time unit. If you are interested in checking out the powerpoint and lab worksheet I used for this lesson, click here. If you would like to look at additional ice core information and dig through real data, check out this site. Have fun!

One of the most common projects for invasive species is for students to make a "Most Wanted" poster. Students do research on an invasive species of their choice and create a wanted poster that includes facts about the species and what they would be "wanted" for. It can be fun, but after doing it for a few years I was looking for something different. Below are some articles, videos, activities, and simulations you can add to your invasive species unit!

This video from Ted is a great introduction to what invasive species are:

This is a fun interactive activity where students act as fish and compete for food and see the effect of invasive species on native species. Requires minimal materials!

This "Fearsome Frog" video from National Geographic is not new (it feels very 90's) but since I'm a local Arizonan my students love watching it since it hits home. This video explores how Bullfrogs are an invasive species that were brought to Arizona by the government and what people have done to try and control the population. At the end of the video I ask students to brainstorm ideas on what we could do to eliminate them from our local ecosystem.

Instead of the go-to "Most Wanted" poster, what about having students create an obituary? In this activity students create an obituary for either an invasive species that has finally been exterminated, or for a native species that has gone extinct in an area due to invasive competition.

Do you have any budding artists in your class? Or students that like to read comics? Check out this lesson plan and comic strip from Oregon State University on invasive crayfish.

If you are looking to include some literacy, newsela.com is always a great source of articles. Here is an article about how technology can be used to combat invasive species. Newsela does require you to sign up and login, but is free to use. Bonus: You can also change the lexile of any article! Great for differentiation.

Have you checked the website of your local fish and wildlife department? Arizona Game and Fish created this poster of our 10 most invasive species. Students enjoy looking at the poster and discussing how many of them they have seen or knew about. Head over to your local site and see what you can find!

In this fun "Invasion Game" from Brainpop, students act as fish competing for food. In part 2 of the game students need to manage invasive species by keeping Carp out of the lake for 25 turns. It's free and does not require a subscription to brainpop.com.

The website "Species in Pieces" is more about endangered species opposed to invasive species, but as we know many species are endangered due to invasives. This website has information about 30 animals that are endangered, gives facts about each animal, and includes a link to a youtube video. Worth checking out! 

If you have the ability to get your students outside, try a citizen science project! Eddmaps.org is a website from University of Georgia built for early detection and mapping of invasive species. You need to register for an account, but you can collect data and report your findings straight from your phone. It would be fun to have your students contribute data to a meaningful and reputable project.

I hope those help spruce up your ecology unit! If you have any other favorite lesson ideas for invasive species, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Do you have students that shut down in your class and don't do any work? Most of the time there is always a reason for this. There could be issues going on in the home, issues with friends, or health problems. But did you ever consider you as the teacher might be contributing to the problem? This is especially something teachers who like to be sarcastic at times (like me!) need to be conscious of. If this is not your personality, this blog post isn't for you. But if you like to goof and be sarcastic with students, then time for a little self reflection. Here are my top 3 tips of things we often do as teachers that we need to stop doing in order to build a better classroom culture:

1. WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING: Bringing up things kids did previously.
We are all human. We make mistakes. And guess what- nobody likes to have those mistakes brought up, especially in front of their friends or peers. Here are some examples:
Have you had a kid drop a beaker? Next time she comes to pick up lab supplies, don't say "let's not drop it again!" because I can promise you she didn't do it on purpose the first time, and now she won't want to participate in the lab because she is so worried about breaking something.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Instead, try to not put the student on the spot, but give gentle reminders to the entire class. Using the broken beaker example, when ALL students come to pick up their supplies, keep repeating "Use two hands please" so she gets the reminder without being singled out.

2. WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING: Punishing behaviors you want to see.
I know this sounds like something you would never do, but if you think about it, you've probably done it. Do you have a student that comes to class tardy almost every day? I have plenty.... and it is super frustrating. Lets say Jesse has a bad habit of coming to class 5 minutes late. You've talked to Jesse about it and even called home. Finally Jesse comes to class on time and when he enters you look at him and say "FINALLY!" or "Am I seeing things?" Even if you are joking, these comments will likely make Jesse feel uncomfortable when he should instead be getting positive reinforcement.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Instead, reinforce the behavior with a positive comment like "Hi Jesse, I'm so glad to see you!" or "I really appreciate you making an effort to be here early today." 

3. WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING: Being inconsistent with with consequences. 
This is the number one thing students will call you out on if you ever do it. For example, you walk by Vanessa who should be on task but is on her phone and you say "Vanessa, please put the phone away." Then 10 minutes later you see Ricardo on his phone and take it away until the end of the class period. I can promise you, Ricardo isn't going to give up that phone without an argument if you aren't being equitable.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Try and do your best to be consistent with your consequences at all times. While there are sometimes exceptions to this rule (IEP accommodations, doctors notes for extra bathroom breaks, etc) try and be conscious of being fair to all students, even the ones that are repeat offenders. And when you do make a mistake and a student yells "that's not fair!"... own it. They will respect you more when you admit you were in the wrong opposed you answering "life's not fair" (even if that is what is crossing your mind).

Overall, building positive relationships with your students is key to them learning. As Rita Pierson says, "kids can't learn from people they don't like." So even when you are having a bad day and you want to crawl under your desk and cry (I've been there), try your best to take a deep breath and build the kids up, not down.

Every year, we celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd. If you have some flexibility in your curriculum, it is great to take a day or two and do some fun Earth Day activities. If you already teach science, it is really easy to pick a topic that should fit into your curriculum. I've compiled a list of activities, projects, articles, and movies you can use this month. Find one or two that catch your eye and have fun!

LABS and ACTIVITIES
Carbon Footprint Calculator- Have students calculate their carbon footprint at www.footprintcalculator.org. If you would like a worksheet to accompany the activity, click here.

Quadrat Biodiversity Survey- Go outside and have students complete a biodiversity survey. You can mark off quadrats with string, meter sticks, or even borrow hula hoops from the PE teacher. Here is a worksheet you can use for this activity.

Air Quality Lab- How clean is the air you are breathing? Use this simple 2 day lab to look at particulate matter in the air. (Microscopes required).

Learn About Acid Rain- If you are lucky enough to have rain during April, collect some of that rain water! Have your students compare the pH of tap water, bottled water, and rain water. They will be shocked how low the pH of rainwater is (It is generally around 5.6)!

Build A Water Filter- Millions of people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water. Challenge your students to build a water filter with every day resources. Here is a free lesson to get you started from NASA. 

Urban heat islands- Here in Phoenix, we have a major urban heat island problem. If you live in a large city, chances are you do too. Teach students about urban heat islands, and have them go outside and record temperatures of different materials on your school campus. Here is a lab worksheet you can use.

Build a Solar Cooker- If it is warm enough where you live, solar cookers are really fun to make! I let students use whatever materials they want. I've had them bring in shoe boxes, pizza boxes, and even pringles cans. Cook up some smores and have a gooey treat.

Simulate an Oil Spill Cleanup- This lesson from National Geographic is really engaging! Students use vegetable oil, water, soap, food coloring, and other inexpensive materials to simulate an oil spill and analyze the best way to clean it up. You can check it out here.

PROJECTS
How Much Waste? Have your students see how much trash they produce by having them carry their trash around for a day. Give each students a grocery bag and the next day in class they can weigh their bags and analyze what percent is food waste vs recyclables etc. You may get some groans, but it is a very eye opening experience for them!

Plan a Fundraiser- Have your students plan a school fundraiser for an organization such as Water Is Life or One Tree Planted. Even small donations go a long way! 

Neighborhood Clean Up- Have students organize a neighborhood or park clean up near your school. It is also a great way to earn some community service hours they may need for classes or clubs! 

Virtual Field Trip- Don't have the funding to take your students on a field trip? Try a virtual one instead! Many sites such as Discovery have cool virtual experiences for students to see things that they wouldn't normally have an opportunity to see. Here is a list of more options. 

Plant a Tree on Campus- I know this sounds cliche, but honestly when I've done it in the past students really enjoy it and never forget it. I've had students that graduated come back and check on their tree. Call around to a few local nurseries, and they will often donate a tree for free to a school, or you can do a small fundraiser on campus to raise money for one. You can also check out this freebie that has students measure the worth of one tree. 

LITERACY
Make an Infographic- Assign your students an Earth Day related topic (water pollution, renewable resources, recycling, etc) and ask them to do research and make you an infographic. Piktochart is a great and free website you can use to make info graphics. If you would like some worksheets to help guide students through the infographic making process, click here. 

A Long Walk to Water- If you run a book club at your school or your library has multiple copies of this book, you might want to give it a try. It is a really quick read about kids in Sudan who struggle with having potable water. 

​
Pacific Garbage Patch- Have your students heard of the Pacific garbage patch? Find an article on it (such as this one on newsela) and have students read about pollution in our oceans. Have them brainstorm ways to fix this problem. 

MOVIES & DOCUMENTARIES
Below is a list of documentaries and movies that are related to sustainability, conservation, and climate change on our planet. Preview before showing to make sure they are appropriate for your students. 

Story of Stuff- This Youtube channel tracks consumer products from production to landfill. Choose a product you think your students might be interested in. 
The Lorax- The original is available on Youtube. 
Chasing Coral- available on Netflix.
Before the Flood- available on Netflix.
One Strange Rock- available on Netflix.
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind- available on Netflix
No Impact Man
​Racing Extinction