The Green Desk
The Green Desk is a resource for early childhood educators, childcare providers, administrators, and professionals seeking the latest information to create high quality, healthy outdoor environments for young children.
Categories: Creating outdoor learning spaces
Grade Level: Early Childhood
Location: Nationwide
Hands on the Land
A searchable collection of curriculum for organizations and agencies around the country. Search by grade level, topic (health, history, language, mathematics, STEM, science, social studies, technology, the arts), format, type and resource type.
Categories: See above
Grade Level: Pre-K to Post-Secondary
Location: Nationwide
Explore, a collection of activities designed to engage children in earth, space and planetary science in informal learning environments.
Hands-on activities on a variety of topics utilizing easy-to-put-your-hands-on materials.
Categories: Earth, space, and planetary science
Grade Level: K-12
Location: Nationwide
Environmental Exchange Boxes, a Project Learning Tree idea.
Research your local nature, then exchange a box with kids in another state. A description and how-to of this interesting project.
Categories: Nature, research
Grade Level: K-12
Location: Nationwide
EcoMUVE
EcoMUVE is an exciting new curriculum research project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that uses immersive virtual environments to teach middle school students about ecosystems and causal patterns. EcoMUVE includes two one-week computer-based modules within a four week inquiry-based ecosystems curriculum.
Categories: Ecosystems
Grade Level: Middle School
Location: National
Lite Geology, a publication for teachers from the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.
A publication for teachers with information and lesson plans. Included with the main articles are cartoons, puzzles, poetry, and other features designed to make learning fun. They also include information about teachers' resources, and upcoming geological and scientific events.
Categories: Geology
Grade Level: K-12
Location: State
Garden Lessons from EE Week
Gardening lessons for all grade levels. Interesting lesson plans, activities, citizen science projects, books, and websites.
Other toolkits include Water, Geography, Climate and Weather,
and Energy.
Categories: Biology
Grade Level: K-12
Location: State/National
PBS LearningMedia
PBS LearningMedia is your destination for easy, instant access to tens of thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save, and share with ease.
Categories: All subjects
Grade Level: K-12
Location: State/National
Lost Ladybug Project
The Lost Ladybug Project offers two lesson toolkits (for grades K-2 and 3-6) around a citizen scientist project studying ladybugs.
Categories: Biology
Grade Level: K-6
Location: National
Journey North
Journey North is a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles, and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.
Categories: Biology
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Desert Reef Curriculum for New Mexico
The Desert Reef Educational Project is a classroom curriculum about the unique geological features found in New Mexico and West Texas. This curriculum consists of six lessons plans, accompanied by short videos that will enhance the lessons. The lessons are designed for middle and high school students. All materials are free to educators.
Categories: Geology
Grade Level: 7-12
Location: Statewide
Interactive Simulations
The PhET project - one of three laureates selected for the Microsoft Education Award- provides fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena for free at the PhET website.
More Simulations
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (funded by the National Science Foundation) offers more Earth Science simulations.
Categories: Earth and Physical science, online activities
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Citizen Science Birding projects
The Cornell Lab of Orinthology has many different citizen science birding projects to get your students involved with.
Categories: Birds
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Water on the Go
This organization offers local (Albuquerque-area) hands-on training for teachers. . You'll participate in interesting, fun, inexpensive labs that you can do with kids to help them met NM Science Standards You'll leave with new content knowledge, plus ideas, plans, and materials that you can quickly put to use in your 4th to 8th grade classroom
Categories: water
Grade Level: 4th-8th
Location: State
Bird Day.org
This International Migratory Bird Day website has tons of free lesson plans, activities, and printables about birds and bird migration for all grades.
Categories: lesson plans, habitats, adaptation
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
TeachEngineering
The TeachEngineering digital library provides teacher-tested, standards-based engineering content for K-12 teachers to use in science and math classrooms. Mapped to educational content standards, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands-on, free, and relevant to children's daily lives.
Categories: lesson plans, science, math, engineering
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Green Education Foundation
A collection of fun, hands-on, standards-based lessons for grades K-12. Lessons can be sorted by grade, and subject level. This website also has resources for Green Building and Green Teams in schools.
Categories: lesson plans, environment
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Environmental Health Science Lessons
The National Institute of Environmental Health Science has collected more than 100 science and interdisciplinary lesson plans at the High School level. All are categorized by grade level, skills, subjects, class time, and focus.
Categories: lesson plans, science, interdisciplinary
Grade Level: 9-12
Location: National
Five Minute Field Trips
This is a 51 page pdf with 32 quick, thoughtful outdoor activities to do in your playground or nature area near your school, published by the Global Environmental and Outdoor Education Council of the Alberta Teachers' Association, with ideas from Joseph Cornell, David Sobol, the Calgary Zoo, and many others. Great activities!
Categories: energy conservation, recycling, lesson plans, online resources
Grade Level: 1-6
Location: National
The EPA's curriculum page
The EPA has written lots of curriculum around climate change, energy conservation, recycling, and waste reduction. They offer free activity booklets (you can order up to 30 of each one), online activities and lesson plans, and even CD ROMS of lessons. Interesting handouts include "The Lifecycle of a CD/DVD" and "The Lifecycle of a Cellphone." There is also information about science fair projects, service learning, and starting clubs in schools.
Categories: energy conservation, recycling, lesson plans, online resources
Grade Level: K-12
Location: National
Local Water Utility Lessons
This website from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has great resources to teach about water and electricity. There are free lesson plans, webquests, and links to other resources. They do free water education visits in Albuquerque, as well.
Categories: water, lesson plans, online resources
Grade Level: K-12
Location: Albuquerque
Natural Teachers' Network
The Children and Nature Network's Natural Teachers Network believes "Nature is a powerful learning tool that can ignite curiosity," and provides lots of ideas and inspiration to get your students outside as part of the regular school day and curriculum.
Categories: outdoor education, lesson plans
Location: National
Outdoor Biology
Over 90 downloadable outdoor science activities, sorted by subject and location, created by the Lawrence Berkeley Hall of Science. Excellent, well-written activities all ready to go.
Categories: outdoor education, lesson plans
Location: National
PBS Science and Nature
Many, many sites with lesson plans ready to go (lots with interactive, online activities) for kids in grades PreK-12. Math, science, environmental science, technology, forensics, statistics, exploration, and economics are some of the many topics covered. Their wealth of resources can seem overwhelming, but everything is searchable and filterable by grade, subject and topic.
Categories: lesson plans, online activities, movies
Grade Level: PreK-12
Location: National
New Mexico Natural History Museum
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History has four types of kits available for check-out for free for two weeks (Fossils, Minerals and Rocks, Birds and Marine Invertebrates).
Categories: Kits
Grade Level:
Location: New Mexico
Valles Caldera Science Education
The Valles Caldera has three programs for middle and high school students, as well as the option to design your own research study. The current projects offered are Restoration Monitoring, Fish shocking, and Frog-Call Surveys. PEEC has money to help with field trips to the Valle. Call us for more information.
Categories: Field Trips
Grade Level: 6-12
Location: New Mexico
Valles Caldera Teacher Trainings
If you've got a few days this summer and $260 to spare, you can attend a fantastic teacher training workshop at the Valle. Choose from Geology, Wildlife Ecology, Stream Ecology or Botany.
Categories: Teacher Training
Grade Level: All
Location: New Mexico
National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation has lesson plans and activities for students in grades K-8 on Habitats, Conservation, Ecosystems and Wildlife
Categories: Lesson Plans
Grade Level: K-8
Location: National
E-Nature
Enature.com helps you identify over 5000 species of plants and animals by listing them in a searchable field guide. Learn all about habitats from Wetlands to Deserts. There are even local guides that list birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals in your area.
Categories: Research Resource
Grade Level: All
Location: National
Hawks Aloft
Hawks Aloft offers single visit and multi-visit, yearlong programs in your classroom. Some are expensive, some grant-funded and so are offered at a reduced cost. Educators bring raptors to the classroom and provide hands-on activities and lessons.
Categories: Class Visits/ Field Trips
Grade Level: K-6
Location: New Mexico
NMSU Mobile Lab
The mobile lab visits high schools across New Mexico and provides students with the opportunity to use state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and advanced molecular biology techniques. Activities involve techniques such as DNA extraction, PCR amplification, restriction enzyme screening and gel electrophoresis. These activities have been designed to help reach the New Mexico State Department Education Science Standards and Benchmarks for grades 9 - 12 in the life sciences.
Categories: Class Visits/Field Trips
Grade Level: 9-12
Location: New Mexico
New Mexico Wildlife Notes
Wildlife Notes, from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, offers one-page fact sheets on native birds, mammals, fish and aquatic species, amphibians and reptiles, and insects and spiders.
Categories: Research Resource
Grade Level: All
Location: New Mexico
NM Wildlife Trunks
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish offers Wildlife Trunks for you to check out and use in your classroom. Trunks often contain skulls, skeletal parts such as antlers, horns, etc., hides, scat, tracks, videos, children's literature and a Teachers Guide.
Categories: Kits
Grade Level:
Location: New Mexico
Asombro Institute
The Asombro Institute in Las Cruces designs their own science units and kits. These units are called the Schoolyard Desert Discovery Project. While they're developed with the desert in mind, there are plenty of activities that can be done in a Los Alamos schoolyard. The lessons are all hands-on and use your schoolyard as the classroom. This link is to the water module. Kits with all the supplies needed are available from Asombro.
Categories: Kits/Lesson Plans
Grade Level: 3-8
Location: New Mexico
