Pollution

Side effects of global warming and carbon dioxide emmisions are being discovered at a rapid pace. This report from Geophysical Research Letters, explains how marine life and marine physics are being affected by the acidification of oceans. Oceans acidify by absorbing carbon dioxidie from the atmosphere.

Earth Gauge, a program of the National Environmental Education Foundation, provides meteorologists across the country with ecological/ environmental tips to include within their forecasts. This information can be utilized by educators in the classroom as well.

This site provides an oppurtunity for students to try to solve an environmental health problem by creating a scene where they treat an area exposed by a hazardous substance. Students must utilize their scientific knowledge for the purpose of acting out a hypothetical or real-life scenario.

NOVA provides students with a role playing activity to investigate the possible impacts of global warming. Students can investigate agriculture, policy, health, and a myriad of other climate issues to gain a broad range of information to better understand the impacts of climate change.

This is an interesting activity which allows students to see what their ecological footprint. Students can then try different ways to reduce to their ecological impact. This exercise works well as a group activity to compare ecological footprints among class members.

The purpose of this field trip is to assess the health of two related aquatic ecosystems,  using Biological assessment of Benthic Macroinvertebrate populations, and Habitat Assessment of the stream ecosystem and of the surrounding terrestrial ecosystem. You can use any two close bodies of water for this experiment.

Soil is a renewable resource composed of unconsolidated mineral material (clay, silt, sand, and pebbles), decomposing organic matter, water, air, microbes and detritvores. The mineral material comes from the weathering of rock and sediments deposited by erosion via wind, water, ice and gravity, and is influenced by climate and topography.

This hands-on activity explores the economics of mining, the process of reclamation, and the consumption of cookies!

To stimulate the effect of acid rain on plant life, students to set up a lab experiment to compare the effect of varying levels of acidity on plant seedlings and seed germination.

This week long unit examines the seminal work by Rachel Carson, as an example of scientific writing. Silent Spring was the first book to bring pesticides and the wide spread use of chemicals in the environment to the public's attention. Students will read selected chapters for both scientific content and literary analysis.