Earth Day Tech Ideas-Please share!

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Permalink Reply by Pam on April 14, 2009 at 7:48pm

I too nee Earth Day ideas for the computer lab K - 5 Any luck

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Permalink Reply by Jonah Salsich on April 18, 2009 at 5:30pm

I am thinking of having my 3rd grade students follow The Great Turtle Race online as a way to introduce them to the problems with plastic, and the importance of biodiversity. National Geographic Kids' main page has some activities to go with it. Earth Day will fall on the 8th day of the race (it is 14 days total).
We will be starting a unit on resources and conservation, so I thought this might be a fun way to kick it off. (And the race map is pretty cool!)

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Barkemeyer on April 18, 2009 at 6:51pm

I followed the Great Turtle Race two years ago with my 4th graders. They loved it! We were able to jump in and spend every afternoon learning all about leatherback turtles and then presented our findings to the 2nd grade for their ocean unit. We all chose a turtle and cheered them on. Lots of fun!

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Aune on April 18, 2009 at 7:08pm

I had my fourth graders create commercials to inform/excite people about the new recycling program in our school. I left it pretty open ended, but the kids did a great job with them.

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Permalink Reply by Jonah Salsich on April 18, 2009 at 8:06pm

Anyone interested in a video conference on Earth Day?

I teach 3rd grade in Connecticut. I know it is short notice, and I should warn you that this would only be our second conference (either Skype or Google Talk, so it might be a little shaky.) We will be starting a unit on resources and conservation next week, so I don't know how deep my students would be able to get into the discussion, but I thought it might be an exciting way to get them started.

My students would need it to be fairly structured, so one possibility would be to just focus on plastic - why plastic bags and bottles can be harmful, ways to reduce disposable plastic use in daily life, and ideas of how to spread the word about plastic.

As I mentioned in an earlier reply, my class will start following The Great Turtle Race online on Monday as a launching point for thinking about plastic. Earth Day will fall on the 8th day of the 14 day race. National Geographic Kids has some connecting activities on their main page, as well as a pdf "Plastic Pledge" that students can sign as a promise to try to reduce their plastic use. Perhaps other classes could follow the race as well, and we could share our picks and sign a group "plastic pledge" (or a watered-down version, if it is too extreme).

I'm open to other ideas! I know my class would get a boost from sharing Earth Day with other classes (K-4).

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Permalink Reply by Julie Sloup on April 18, 2009 at 8:17pm

Our district uses Discovery Education and Waste Management has created a lot of interesting activities for Earth Day.
I will also be checking in with the turtle race - although late due to our spring break - have to admit that I only discovered the turtle race because Stephen Colbert had a turtle named after him a few years back! (I teach 4th grade)

http://www.thinkgreen.com/classroom

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Permalink Reply by Jack Olmsted on April 19, 2009 at 7:51am

5th graders are producing video Public Service Announcements for the $2,500 EPA Earth Day YouTube contest.

SchoolTube has a lot of great classroom videos on their new Green Channel that was created for National Environmental Education Week.

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Permalink Reply by brandon on April 19, 2009 at 7:56am

Google Biz KitPaper mache earths made from Recycled newspaper , in addition to learning about energy saving methods.

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Permalink Reply by Eve Heaton on April 19, 2009 at 9:03am

I have the same problem with Spring Break dates - which limited really what we could do leading up to Earth Day. Over spring break I put together a recyling display in our front display cases at the school, which my students will be contributing to on Monday. I wrote a composting grant and we have been composting with worms since February (we integrated ELA with students reading How to Eat Fried Worms and writing their own worm inspired stories - which we are in the process of scanning into Photostory so they can narrate).

I love the video above with the students doing PSA's, which I might do next year.

Monday I am teaching my fourth graders how to hyperlink text in Word and in our blog. Their "Blog Post of the Week" is to research something eco friendly on the web and hyperlink it with an explanation on what it is and how it might be helpful to the environment (i.e. a book that might be interesting to someone, a link to a blog post about what to do with plastic bottles, things you can make with recyecled crafts, etc.).

I would love to, next year, do a school fundraiser using the tshirts on www.weaddup.org. I have the Lights Out shirt and the Compost shirt and they are great.

Eve
www.mrsheatonsclass1.blogspot.com
www.mrsheatonsclass.com

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Permalink Reply by Betsy Basom on April 19, 2009 at 12:44pm

Thanks everyone for the great ideas!

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Permalink Reply by James Edward Charles Webber on April 19, 2009 at 7:42pm

Hey Betsy

http://www.inspiredlearningcommunity.com/lessons-and-ideas


James

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Permalink Reply by Betsy Basom on April 19, 2009 at 9:44pm

After being inspired by all your posts, I had some time today to check out some links. These are ecological footprint calculators especially geared for kids:

www.kidsfootprint.org

www.islandwood.org/kids/impact/footprint

www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx

The next one below is great, but perhaps designed for an older audience. I still may go through it with my students to calculate my own footprint. You get to create an avatar that walks you through your eco-consumption!

www.earthday.net

Again, thanks for all the ideas. Maybe the above links will help too.
Happy Earth Day!

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