No matter what branch of science you’re currently teaching, it’s easy to incorporate Earth Day activities into your classroom. Don’t let “I’m not in that unit right now” deter you from celebrating this important day! I’ve got Earth Day activities for every branch of science!

Earth Science Activities

This is the easy one… it doesn’t get more natural than covering Earth Day in an Earth science unit.

Water Cycle

The water cycle is a natural entry point for teaching about water pollution. A seamless addition would be to use the water pollution stations I created. Each station covers a different aspect of water pollution. The information on each is presented a little differently, from graphs to data tables to infographics. The kids stay engaged with the information because each station is different than the next. As they travel through the stations, students answer questions on a student sheet.

Another option to melt (forgive the pun) together the water cycle and Earth Day is to have students read about how climate affects sea ice and glaciers.

Pollution

Pollution is obviously an important topic when it comes to human impact on Earth. Karen Sinai of the TPT Store Science by Sinai and I put our heads together to write blog posts about how we each teach three different types of pollution. Check out the blog posts below to read about the easy and free “hooks” I use to introduce pollution lessons and the fun and unique activities that Karen developed:

• Water Pollution Blog Post (mine) and Science by Sinai’s Water Pollution Project Blog
• Air Pollution Blog Post (mine) and Science by Sinai’s Air Pollution Blog
• Land Pollution Blog Post (mine) and Science by Sinai’s Municipal Waste Lesson Blog

Environmental Disasters

While I’m not a fan of presenting environmental issues with only a doom and gloom attitude (read more about my opinion on that here), I do think it is important to learn from the past. I wrote an article designed for kids called “Top 10 Environmental Disasters”. Kids read about what happened and how the environment was affected during ten major environmental disasters. Some of the events that students will read about include:

• Chernobyl nuclear disaster
• Exxon Valdez oil spill
• Union Carbide gas leak
• Great smog of London
• Lake Victoria pollution

This is an easy activity to assign and would work well if you need a day for the kids to work independently. The format is engaging and no prior knowledge is required, so it’s a no-brainer stand-alone lesson. (Read: You just make copies – or even easier – use the included Google option!)

Climate Change

In the last few years, many states have been incorporating climate change into their regular curriculum. This translates into a lot of options to discuss climate change for Earth Day. I have created a variety of activities to choose from if climate change is going to be your angle for Earth Day:

• Graph Climate Change (This is a challenging graphing activity.)
• Analyzing Climate Graphs (This one is more accessible but still requires critical thinking.)
• Map Carbon Emissions
• Read about Fossil Fuels or Renewable Energy

I’d recommend any of the above, but my favorite idea to tie together Earth Day and climate change is to play a 2 Truths and a Lie game. Kids read (in pairs or groups) a “Two Truths and a Lie” card that has two true facts about climate change and one lie or misinformation, then discuss which choice they believe is the lie on the card. They’ll turn the card over to discover the lie and learn more about the truth. This activity leads to very vibrant discussions about climate change. I’ve been amazed at the group and class discussions it fosters!

Life Science Activities

Earth Day activities for life science are easy to find! In my class, I cover ecosystems in the spring, anyway, so it’s a natural fit.

Invasive Species

First, we talk about how humans have spread invasive species across the planet and the damage to ecosystems and native species they’ve caused. To read more about how I cover invasive species, check out this invasive species blog post! Karen Sinai also has a fun post about how she covers invasive species HERE.

Habitat Destruction

Then, my student read about habitat destruction in the Amazon. I give them four different maps of the Amazon: natural resource use, management areas, land cover, and deforestation. Students analyze the maps and make CLAIMS based on EVIDENCE from the maps about how a proposed railway will affect land cover, resources available, and ecosystems. Kids don’t get much practice reading maps anymore, so this is challenging – but valuable – for them!

Overharvested Species

I also have kids read news articles about overharvested species. Every year I mix up my approach to this Earth Day activity. I’ve done this activity in three different ways:

• Assign the individual news articles/questions for homework.
• Have the students circulate through the articles and questions in stations for a 2-day activity.
• As a group project – each group gets one article and then presents it to the class.

Biomagnification

And last – my kids’ favorite every year – FLYING CATS! I can’t tell you how much kids love this activity! First, students read an engaging article about parachuting cats. True story! Cats had to be parachuted into Borneo to control rats. The rats died because of a long and convoluted chain of events that occurred due to the biomagnification of the pollutant DDT. After they read the article in amazement, students have to put the series of events in order and answer questions related to biomagnification. This is a fun one!

Climate Change and Animals

I don’t know about your students, but mine are not the most eager readers… that is until I give them something really engaging to read. Students LOVE this article about how climate change could affect various animals! It includes species they have heard of (penguins, koalas) and many they haven’t (melomys, thrush, pika). After they read, students classify the types of threats climate change poses (habitat destruction, food source disturbance, reproductive disturbance, etc.). They’ll also answer several text-dependent questions, including a claims and evidence analysis section.

Physical Science Activity for Earth Day

So tell me I’m not the only one to do this…You want to show a video on a Friday before vacation, but it doesn’t exactly fit what you’re teaching right now.  So, you use some verbal gymnastics to try to explain to the kids how it ties into your current unit.  You make it fit!

And while physical science doesn’t seem like the most natural match for Earth Day lessons, we can make it fit!. If you are teaching physical science right now and are looking for a way to pair it with Earth Day, I’ve got you!

Teaching any chemistry this year?  Properties of matter?  Classification of matter?  The impact of natural versus synthetic materials? My Chemicals of Pollution Reading and Questions fits right in! 

Students read an article about several chemicals that are common pollutants, such as lead, mercury, benzene, phthalates, PCBs, and more. Students will learn about:

• Properties of each chemical
• If each chemical is a compound or an element
• Why these chemicals are in the products we use
• If these chemicals are lab-made (for example, PCBs and phthalates) or originate in nature (for example, the elements mercury and lead)
• How each chemical affects human health and the environment

Even if you haven’t covered these topics, the answers to the questions are all found in the text, so no prior chemistry knowledge is needed!

Another Option

If you are interested in any of the above lessons, I also offer them on Teachers Pay Teachers!