Resource Library

ESA21 offers over 40 activities that engage students in a variety of environmental topics. The activities rely on a mixture of hands-on, field and Web-based experiences that give students a deeper understanding of the issues. Topic areas include: air, environmental science basics, the biosphere, earth, energy, home life and pollution.

The reduction of fossil-fuel consumption and exhaust pollution are two goals of present-day automobile design. Hybrid automobiles tackle this design issue by maintaining the range and re-fueling advantages of internal combustion engines, while incorporating the environmentally desirable characteristics of electric motors. In this lesson, students will learn the basic principles of engines, motors and generators, how hybrid vehicles work, and the pros and cons of both traditional and hybrid technology vehicles.

This free, multi-disciplinary, hands-on curriculum from The Keystone Center encompasses many subject areas including biology, earth science, chemistry, physics and ecology as well as language arts, math and social studies.

This lesson, created by PBS, gives students the opportunity to explore wind power using a hands-on approach. Students builid model wind turbines and experiment with how to cope with changes in weather and improve efficiency.

This activity correlates with National Physical Sciences content standards.

If your classroom has access to a photovoltaic cell, the following activities can be utilized. These activities are meant to teach students about how light is converted to energy and to show how renewable sources of energy can be used in greening buildings.

The following activities REQUIRE a PV cell:

This lesson introduces students to the photoelectric effect (the basic physical phenomenon underlying the operation of photovoltaic cells) and the role of quanta of various frequencies of electromagnetic energy in producing it.

This video from Forecast Earth and The Weather Channel shows how water is being utilized in new ways to help power homes and communitities all over the world with tidal power. Two areas highlighted in this video are the East River in New York City and the Scotland coastline.

Oceanography is an interdisciplinary science that incorporates geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Because there is so much to learn and know, oceanographers generally specialize in specific subdisciplines of oceanography.

This video by National Geographic shows how scientists are using new technologies to predict the impact earthquakes will have on urban areas in the near future. Try incorporating this video into an Earth Science of Physics lesson. This video not only shows how buildings react during earthquakes, but also shows how objects within the structure behave.

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.