The objective of this project is to develop a list of college-level resources (articles, podcasts, videos, etc) that can be used as teaching tools in undergraduate classrooms. These resources may cover topics of racial justice, traditional ecological knowledge, environmental racism, and other related topics. We also seek to recognize both historical and current contributions of BIPOC to science through increased representation in syllabi. We also will provide resources to support instructors who seek to include any of these ideas topics in their classrooms.
We have compiled a google spreadsheet with resources and recommend incorporating these resources to highlight BIPOC contributions and voices. Topics covered include: conservation biology; environmental social sciences; genetics; human health; invasive species; landscape ecology; restoration ecology; taxonomy; traditional ecological knowledge; and urban ecology.
Category: Curricula/Lesson plans
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
The mission of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at the University at Buffalo is to promote the development and dissemination of materials and practices for case teaching in the sciences. Their website provides access to an award-winning collection of peer-reviewed case studies.
Access to answer keys and teaching notes requires an approved account and annual paid subscription fee. Access to the cases is free. All new subscribers must first be verified to make sure that they are teachers affiliated with an educational institution.
Greening STEM Hub
The Greening STEM Hub, developed by the National Environmental Education Foundation, provides tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical lessons in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment.
The Greening STEM approach is an adaptable framework for creating a series of integrated and holistic learning activities. It is broad enough to accommodate the various educational standards and competencies, yet adaptable enough to operate outside of that framework.
The Greening STEM Hub:
- describes the Greening STEM approach
- offers case studies of after-school programs that illustrate the components of Greening STEM
- provides a framework for implementing Green STEM at your school or organization
- includes a curated collection of curriculum, lessons, and activities reviews by Achieve, Inc. and NSTA and a Greening STEM Idea Journal that guides you through each section and provides space to plan your own Greening STEM project.
A Guide to Green Chemistry Experiments for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Labs
Beyond Benign, My Green Lab, and MilliporeSigma have teamed up to develop a comprehensive teaching guide for undergraduate labs featuring Green Chemistry alternatives to traditional organic chemistry experiments and Green Chemistry lab practices.
Green Chemistry JV InvenTeams Activity Guide
Expose students to the ways of creating a sustainable future and tackling the world’s biggest societal challenges through chemical science and invention.
The new JV InvenTeam Green Chemistry Activity Guide will encourage students to use green chemistry principles to invent bioplastics. Students will learn how chemists can apply green chemistry principles to invent products and materials that reduce harmful impacts on humans and the environment. Educators and students will be lead through a 7-part project to explore sustainable invention.
Topics Include:
- Invention Introduction
- Inventing for a Sustainable Future
- Reuse and Explore
- Experimenting with Bioplastics
- Optimizing our Bioplastic Inventions
- Prototype
- Communicating Green Chemistry Ideas
Purchasing the Invention Kit:
The invention kit is designed for 20 students and two educators, and contains most materials and tools. Kits may only be purchased with a credit card. Purchase orders unfortunately cannot be accepted at this time. Invention kit costs do not include shipping. Shipping costs from our east coast distributor for each JV InvenTeam kit range between $20 and $120 depending on location and kit. Instructions for ordering the kits is here.
Lead Awareness in Indian Country: Keeping our Children Healthy!
This curriculum is a robust set of educational tools that provide practical, on-the-ground, community-based resources to reduce childhood lead exposure in communities. The Curriculum creates a starting point to hold informed conversations within communities to teach parents and caregivers about lead. The Curriculum also empowers individuals to act within their own homes to protect their children and communities from potential lead exposure.
EPA designed the Curriculum with over 200 tribal partners to:
- Raise awareness in tribal communities (and other interested communities) about childhood lead exposure;
- Expand understanding of lead’s potential impacts on children’s health and cultural practices; and
- Encourage actions that can be taken to reduce and/or prevent childhood lead exposure.
The Essential Principles of Climate Literacy
Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science presents information that is deemed important for individuals and communities to know and understand about Earth’s climate, impacts of climate change, and approaches to adaptation or mitigation. Principles in the guide can serve as discussion starters or launching points for scientific inquiry. The guide aims to promote greater climate science literacy by providing this educational framework of principles and concepts. The guide can also serve educators who teach climate science as a way to meet content standards in their science curricula.
New toolkit makes finding weather and climate lesson plans easy
With the prolonged pandemic continuing to affect the United States, traditional education has turned toward at-home learning and virtual classrooms to keep students safe. Now more than ever, teachers must be able to find lesson plans for their students that are adaptable to different learning environments and cover topics required by the curriculum. To meet these needs, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) has created a weather and climate education toolkit where teachers can find resources on the topics of weather, climate and climate change.
Teachers—whether parents, home school tutors or licensed professionals—can find what they need by using the search function to filter by grade level, specific weather and climate subtopics or geographic locations, learning mode and more. Many of the lesson plans and activities in this curated catalog of resources can be used as-is or adapted for virtual learning and at-home teaching environments.
“It was great to be able to work closely with our IISG education team to create this toolkit,” said Veronica Fall, climate extension specialist with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and University of Illinois Extension. “These are tough times we’re living in, so we’re excited to help empower educators, both locally and nationally, with additional resources to be able to teach complex topics in a virtual setting.”
IISG developed the weather and climate education toolkit with support from the Center for Great Lakes Literacy and the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.
Great Lakes Learning: 5 ways to teach your child about groundwater
Read the full story at Great Lakes Now.
Groundwater has been called “the sixth great lake” at times because of its importance and the amount of it available in the Great Lakes region. That’s why each of our collections of lessons about the Great Lakes has a focus on groundwater.
In the first collection, we explore the Water Beyond the Lakes, where students will investigate various features of the Great Lakes basin—including groundwater. In the second collection, we consider the Supply and Demand of Groundwater as threats to the available groundwater impact residents and communities.
Science Friday Remote Learning Kit
Read the full post from Science Friday.
Science Friday Educate resources are always free and openly available, but we’ve also created a set of GoogleDoc assignments that can be easily assigned via Google Classroom, shared with students in your remote online learning platforms, or emailed to students directly. Simply add Science Friday’s Remote Learning Kit to your Google Drive, make a copy of any assignment you want to use, and assign away!
In the kit you will find:
- A message from us which includes some tips on adapting to remote learning,
- A guide to the assignments (including general topics)
- The folder of assignable Google Docs, and
- A blank template so you can use this format to create your own assignments.
So choose your own adventure! Dive directly into the folder, go through the indexed assignments below (using either the slide show or the descriptions), or check out the Remote Learning Kit Guide.
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