Join our Mailing List

Lesson Plans & Activities

Peer-reviewed, classroom-ready NGSS-aligned lesson plans, activities, data puzzles, virtual field trips, and design challenges covering environmental hazards, climate change, mental health, Earth systems, community resilience, and more.  

Lesson Plans & Activities

A picture of a recently burned area by Highway 175
Lake County Cascading Hazards Unit

The unit has four lessons in total. 

 This unit builds an understanding of five natural hazards and their connections in the context of place-based community resilience.
Unit
Middle School
High School
Logo with the words "CLIMATE MENTAL HEALTH" in an arch. "CLIMATE" is in blue, "MENTAL" in red, and "HEALTH" in green. In the center, a person sits on top of a globe holding a green sign with a red heart. On the left, another person holds a protest sign that reads "There is no planet B." On the right, a person sits cross-legged reading a book. Another small figure holds a megaphone
A white wind turbine turns in front of green and tan mountains. There are dried tall grasses in the foreground.
Shifting Winds
In this short unit, students investigate the question "Are wind patterns at the foot of the Rocky Mountains changing?" Students explore what causes wind and look at recent wind data. Students create a public-facing infographic to explain to the public if and how wind patterns are changing.
Unit
Middle School
Photo of Earth's magnetic field
Geomagnetism: Earth's Magnetic Field

In two lessons, designed for grades 6-12, students will explore how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from harmful space weather that can damage communications systems, disrupt navigation systems, and overwhelm the electric grid. 

 In two lessons, designed for grades 6-12, students will explore how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from harmful space weather that can damage communications systems, disrupt navigation systems, and overwhelm the electric grid.
Unit
STEAM Activity
Middle School
High School
CrowdMag App Logo
Colorado Wildfire by Nikolay Kondev. In the background orange fire and grayish-brown smoke rises from a green pine forest
Middle School Wildfire Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Wildfire curriculum. 

 The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.
Unit
Middle School
heartforce placeholder
Image of Little Colorado River Flood by Los Angeles District USACE. Pink river flooded in plains of green grass and banks of pink sand with small green ferns
Middle School Flood Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Flood curriculum. 

 The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.
Unit
Middle School
heartforce placeholder
Folsom Lake Drought by Vince Mig via publicdomainpictures.net. Dry and cracked dirt stained green with rocks and sand to its sides after a drought
Middle School Drought Unit

This HEART Force curricular unit includes all lessons for the Middle School Drought curriculum. 

 The HEART Force curriculum builds an understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.
Unit
Middle School
heartforce placeholder
Silhouette of a person with wheat growing inside the outline.
Right Here Right Now: Impacts Educator Guide

This lessons is part of the Right Here, Right Now Global Summit collection. 

 These resources are part of the larger Right Here, Right Now collection.
Unit
Middle School
High School
Bold dark teal text stacked in large capital letters reading 'RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW.' Below, in smaller letters, it says 'GLOBAL CLIMATE SUMMIT
Student engaging with Polargram station at Fiske Planetarium wearing an orange snowsuit standing in front of a green screen
Drifting North Polar Planetarium
In this MS/HS lesson, students will be transported to the Arctic with the MOSAiC expedition, The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Arctic Climate, in an immersive classroom and field trip experience.
Lesson
Unit
STEAM Activity
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
Demonstrates an arctic food web with animals including ocean algae, zooplankton, polar cod, a seal colored gray, a bowhead whale colored black and white, a polar bear, and sea ice algae colored green. In the background is a yellow sun, light blue sky, and there is also White Sea ice which the polar bear is on and the sea ice algae is underneath.
A Changing Arctic Ecosystem

This storyline unit consists of 8 lessons, each tied to NGSS life science standards

 The Arctic is warming more rapidly than anywhere else on Earth. One consequence of a warming Arctic is a dramatic decline in sea ice, an important habitat for many Arctic plants and animals. In this unit students will engage with 360° virtual reality tours, hands-on labs, and authentic Arctic datasets as they gather evidence to construct explanatory models for the unit driving question, "How might the decline in sea ice affect Arctic organisms large and small?"
Unit
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
Cartoon image of green pine trees with orange fire shapes over them with dead brown brush at the bottom and a dark grayish blue sky
The Future of Forests

This storyline unit consists of 9 lessons, each tied to NGSS life science standards

 In this middle school unit supported by NASA, students engage with online interactives, authentic datasets, and citizen science protocols to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "How do landscapes recover after a wildfire?"
Unit
Middle School
High School
A graph of temperature anomalies with flattened map with red, orange, and yellow shades.
Arctic Feedbacks: Not All Warming Is Equal

This storyline unit consists of 10 lessons, each tied to NGSS Earth's systems standards

 In this MS/HS unit, students engage with 360° virtual field trips, authentic Arctic datasets, and app-based labs to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "Why might the Arctic be warming four times as fast as the rest of the world?"
Unit
Virtual field trip
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
MOSAiC scientists drill through the Arctic ice with the research vessel Polarstern illuminated in the background.
Exploring the New and Old Arctic

This unit consists of 6 lessons, each tied to NGSS nature of science understandings

 In this MS/HS unit, students compare and contrast Arctic expeditions of the past (1893-1896 Fram expedition) and the present (2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition) to prepare for the Arctic of the future.
Unit
Virtual field trip
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
HEART Force logo
HEART Force Curriculum Overview

This unit consists of several lessons and can take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks to teach, depending on which lesson teacher choose to incorporate.

 The HEART Force curriculum builds understanding of wildfire, flood, or drought in the context of place-based community resilience.
Unit
Middle School
High School
heartforce placeholder
Five students prepare to film with camera at a table outside at CU Boulder
Sharing Science with Film: A Guide to Student Productions

The examples and lesson plans provided in the educator guide emphasize scientific film topics; however, the methods shared throughout Sharing Science With Film: A Guide to Student Productions are applicable to films around all topics and genres.

 Sharing Science With Film: A Guide to Student Productions is a guide for educators, and provides a how-to manual for instructing youth on how to produce short films.
Unit
Middle School
High School
Out-of-school/Non-formal
locc logo
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

Get involved and stay up-to-date with CIRES CEEE.

Join Our Mailing List Donate to CIRES CEEE Get Involved