Resource Library

National Environmental Education Week (EE Week) has compiled their own set of Oil Spill resources. They include everything from websites and articles to visuals and lesson plans. Content spans grades K-12, so make sure to check for your appropriate grade level.

In this lesson, students will examine the ways in which art has the power to influence government policy. Students will learn that photography has had a social impact at various intersections with other historical events and movements. This lesson addresses the impact the photographs of the western frontier had on eastern U.S., especially by ensuring that the national parks system would be created. From the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge program.

Students will learn about the ecology of the bison of the plains and how art was used to save them through a series of activities. Student will discuss specific artists whose worked revolved around the bison and how this artwork was instrumental in the conservation of the animal. The student will discuss the role of the bison in the lifestyle of the Plains Indian. Lastly, the student will create a story about bison and a corresponding piece of artwork.  From the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Students explore freshwater, sedimentation and dams. Activities make these topics come to life as students observe the presence and effects of osmotic pressure, measure and compare sedimentation in a nearby waterway and build a turbine to visualize how a turbine and generator work on a dam.

American Field Guide is an online program of PBS that provides access to outdoors programming content and accompanying materials. Their Teacher Resources section provides lesson plans that weave segments of video together into units of inquiry around specific topics. Topics include economic use of natural areas, the rock cycle, landfills, prairie habitats and many others.

Explore More is a multimedia project of Iowa Public Television designed to engage students in real-world problems. The project features engaging topics, an issue-driven approach and a variety of technology resources. Topics include Water Quality, The Future of Energy and Working Landscapes.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published an atlas outlining population-environment linkages. The atlas contains maps and graphics that quantify and illustrate many of the issues and text that lay out the broader links between population dynamics and the environment, placing them within historical perspective.

Students use a digital camera to document local landscapes, identify the various ways in which land is used in their local community/environment and identify and discuss the environmental and social impacts of the different land uses.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Proteccion de la Fauna Mexicana A.C., a Mexican non-governmental organization, developed The Monarch Butterfly Manual, Royal Mail: A Manual for the Environmental Educator. This manual offers activities and labs, arranged by grade level, that promote conservation of the Monarch Butterfly.

This resource contains lesson plans that integrate Native knowledge and scientific issues relating to the environment. Although there are multiple lessons plans, "Moose" and "Digging and Preparing Spruce Roots" are the most high school appropriate.