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earth day at thirty-five: related resources
Activity Ideas | Related Resources
Find Below: PBS Web Sites, Other Recommended Links, Recommended Books
pbs online
PBS offers a wealth of science and nature-oriented content online. To begin your search, visit http://www.pbs.org/neighborhoods/science/, http://www.pbs.org/neighborhoods/nature/, or check out one of these sites:
Nature: "Deep Jungle"
Take an interactive journey into jungles and discover the unique species that thrive within. Travel further into the depths of the jungle with detailed articles, in-depth interviews, additional footage, and lesson plans.
Journey to Planet Earth
Explore the fragile relationship between people and the world they inhabit.
National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth
Find interviews, timely research, and engaging interactive features that will unlock
startling stories of invasive species, changing climate, vanishing
predators, and toxins in our waters.
Scientific American Frontiers: "Hot Planet, Cold Comfort"
Discover how changes in the Arctic climate will affect all of us.
Nova: "World in the Balance"
Test your understanding of the population trends and environmental challenges facing nations around the world.
Online NewsHour: Environment Background Reports
Review the NewsHour's extensive coverage of environmental issues facing the United States and the world.
NOW: Science and Health
Find a variety of timely articles for students and lesson plans about the environment.
recommended web sites
John Muir Exhibit
http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/index.html
"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." John Muir was a naturalist, writer, conservationist, and founder of the Sierra Club, and is on the new California state quarter. This site from the Sierra Club has biographical information, games, quotes, selected writings, and lesson plans aligned to California state standards. John Muir Day is celebrated each April 21, but you can celebrate Earth Day any day.
Subject: The Arts; Reading & Language Arts
More Recommended Arts Links
More Recommended Reading & Language Arts Links
Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
http://onlineethics.org/moral/carson/index.html
The Online Ethics Center hosts a site about moral exemplars, scientists who have done the right thing under difficult circumstances. In spite of chemical company denials, Rachel Carson investigated the dangers of pesticides to wildlife and the environment in her 1962 book "Silent Spring". She is considered a pioneer environmentalist in calling for restrictions on herbicides and pesticides, particularly DDT. In addition to biographical information are excerpts from letters, a summary of Silent Spring, and other supporting material. The site is also available in Spanish.
Subject: Reading & Language Arts
More Recommended Reading & Language Arts Links
EcoKids
http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/index.cfm
Earth Day Canada's site is EcoKids, a place full of activities about environmental issues, wildlife, energy, and nature for elementary students. Check the Fun and Games section for puzzles, games, and coloring sheets. There is also a calendar with daily environmental facts and recycling ideas. Kids will enjoy spending time browsing around this site, there are lots of fun activities. The Curriculum Connections PDF lesson plans are based on the Ontario provincial elementary curriculum. Requires QuickTime and Flash.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
Green Squad
http://www.nrdc.org/greensquad/
Learn how kids can make their schools healthier and greener from this site by the Natural Resources Defense Council. In the section "Investigate the School Environment", start with the interactive tour to get instructions on how the activity works. Print off your progress report to record notes about
clues and discoveries, and then move through two classrooms, the cafeteria, bathroom, closet, and gym to find ways to be a more environment friendly school. The site is also available in Spanish. Flash is required.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
Rotten Truth (About Garbage)
http://www.astc.org/exhibitions/rotten/rthome.htm
Did you know that Americans create approximately 5 pounds of garbage a
day? This site from the Association of Science Technology Centers and
the Smithsonian Institution talk trash.about trash at your home, your
school, and your community. You'll explore issues surrounding municipal
solid waste and see recommendations for businesses and consumers on how
to cut down on garbage. You'll find out more about how nature recycles
and that there really is no "away", that burying, burning, and
recycling garbage doesn't really get rid of it. There are lots of
activities scattered throughout this site for students to at home or in
class.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
EPA Climate Change for Kids
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids/
The average global temperature has increased by almost 1F over the past century, which over a long time, can change the climate.
The Environmental Protection Agency introduces you to global warming, the greenhouse effect, climate, and weather. There are Flash animations about global warming and it is
related to the water and carbon cycles.
Subject: Science & Technology
More Recommended Science & Technology Links
recommended books
Counting in the Garden
By Kim Parker
Published April 2005
Grades: PreK-2
Subjects: Math
Find and count from one to ten floral decorated animals in a garden of bright flowers. The search for the disguised creatures adds an element of fun.
More Recommended Math Books
Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist
By John Brockman
Published August 2004
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Math
Ray Kurweil traces his belief that inventions can change the world for the better to his reading of Tom Swift, Jr. For Paul Davies, theoretical physics was always his quest, even when his family thought he was nuts. Janna Levin, physicist and astronomer, remembers looking out her bedroom window at the night sky and wondering how far she was seeing. Mathematician Steven Strogatz describes an experiment with a pendulum that made clear to him the order in the universe and the importance of knowing mathematics. Steven Pinker, a psychologist, thinks tracing influences is a waste of time. Twenty-seven men and women explain their journeys into science, invention, and mathematics.
More Recommended Math Books
The Sandwalk Adventures: An Adventure in Evolution Told in Five Chapters
By Jay Hosler
Published May 2003
Grades: 6-8
Subjects: Social Studies
During the years Darwin lived at Down House in Kent, he took a walk every day, rain or shine, around his Sandwalk. In this ingeniously conceived graphic novel, Hosler, a biology professor, explores the mechanisms of evolution by imaging a conversation between a curious follicle mite and Darwin as he takes his daily walk. We all have mites in our eyebrows, by the way. Annotations for the chapters provide additional biographical, historical, and scientific information.
More Recommended Social Studies Books
Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation
By Tammy Horn
Published May 2003
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Science & Technology
The honey bee has been a symbol of industry and cooperation in America since its introduction by the British in the Colonial period. Horn presents a cultural history of bees and beekeeping filled with science, ecological lessons, and fascinating anecdotes.
More Recommended Science & Technology Books
John James Audubon: The Making of an American
By Richard Rhodes
Published October 2004
Grades: 6-8
Subjects: Science & Technology
From illegitimate immigrant to world celebrated artist, Audubon's story is the classic American tale. Rhodes has written the first full scale biography of Audubon in forty years. This comprehensive look at the man and his work contains line drawings, maps, portraits, Audubon's art, and photographs of his sons and wife.
More Recommended Science & Technology Books
No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species
By Richard Ellis
Published August 2004
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Science & Technology
Most extinctions result from a combination of factors-habitat destruction, over exploitation, introduced species, and secondary extinctions. With the exception of extinctions brought about by human action, however, there is no inclusive theory to explain extinction. This book examines theoretical causes like meteor impacts, disease, and hunting. Ellis also looks at recently discovered species, or as he calls them anti-extinctions, and species rescue programs, some as cutting edge as the proposed cloning of the Tasmanian Tiger and the Mammoth.
More Recommended Science & Technology Books
It's All for Sale: The Control of Global Resources
By James Ridgeway
Published November 2004
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: Social Studies
Underlying this look at the world's resources and the corporations that control them is the belief that commodities have been at the center of slavery, war, colonialism and empire, migration, and emigration. In separate chapters, Ridgeway examines commodities as obvious as water and food and as overlooked as the sky and biodiversity.
More Recommended Social Studies Books