Resource Library

This teacher page, produced by the Energy Information Administration, provides activities for using Energy Kids as a resource to teach students about energy in a fun and interactive way. The website includes lesson plans, field trips, a career corner, and a teacher guide. The guide provides Language Arts, Math, Performing Arts, Science and Social Studies extension activities by age levels.

Learn about our nation's fossils at home or in the classroom with these activities developed by education specialists in the National Park Service, fossil sites, and various museums. Some of these activities have a site-specific element that can be adapted for use at home or in the classroom. Virtual site visits are also available within the following resources.

This lesson plan from the BRIDGE DATA Series introduces students to the threat that lost of abandoned crab pots pose to marine life, as they continue to catch animals without letting them go. Students analyze data collected from recovered derelict fishing gear and calculate the loss of potential catch that it causes. Materials and related resources for the lesson plan can be downloaded online.

ROOTS, or Restoring Our Own Trees Through Service, is an education initiative of Casey Trees that aims to provide teachers and students with methods to connect with their schoolyard environment. ROOTS utilizes familiar academic disciplines, such as math, reading, and science, to encourage teachers and students to use their backyard forest as their outdoor classroom.

This CD-ROM is a collection of 41 classroom activities, assembled by educators in the COSDD Great Lakes Project that provides teachers, non-formal educators and students in grades 4-10 with insights into the uniqueness of the Great Lakes and their influence on aquatic life and human populations.

The Center for Microbial Oceanography has created an ocean acidification lesson plan kit containing two lessons addressing the causes and consequences of ocean acidification. The first lesson contains readings, worksheets, power points and a hands-on experiment. The second lesson contains a more in-depth experiment using electronic probes to simulate the process of ocean acidification.

In this very hands-on lesson, students will learn about dendrochronology (the study of tree rings to answer ecological questions about the recent past) and come up with conclusions as to what possible climatic conditions might affect tree growth in their region.

The Fix a Leak Week learning resources are a set of activities designed for students in grades 3 through 5 to help them learn about water supplies and the importance of saving water.

Ocean Planet is an exhibition created by the Smithsonian Institution to share recent ocean research with the public. The exhibit provides an online booklet that includes six lesson plans exploring different aspects of the oceans. The lesson plans may be used to meet content standards science and social studies.

These lab activities, developed by the US Forest Service, are supplemental activities for grades K-12 that can be used in any science or interdisciplinary class. The guide includes hands-on, data gathering laboratory exercises, as well as games, quizzes and a glossary of additional resources.  The activities may be adapted to meet content standards in math and science.