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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

2024 Arctic sea ice summer minimum. The image depicts a satellite view of the Arctic where the sea ice is at a minimum during the summer as compared to the median extent that has been averaged from 1981 to 2010.
Arctic Sea Ice and Glaciers - Effects of Albedo

This Data Lens is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of Data Lens lessons.

 In this short activity, students will strengthen their critical thinking skills by carefully observing the data, forming ideas, and backing them up with evidence.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
NOAA Science On a Sphere Data Lens logo overlaid on a world map showing Earth's vegetation and land use. The text reads “Exploring Earth’s Visual Stories
This is a picture that lists the 6 key active listening skills: pay attention, withhold judgment, reflect, clarify, summarize and share.
Active Listening Skills

This activity is one of seven activities in the Climate Mental Health Support Activities.

 In this lesson, students will identify emotions they experience as they learn about the impacts of climate change. In pairs, students will practice active listening skills as one student describes their emotions to the partner who applies active listening skills. They then flip roles and the other student describes their emotions while the partner listens.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
University/College
CLEAN logo, 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 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
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
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Impacts of drought on the Colorado River in the Southwest U.S., Photo Credit: USGS. A river lays low in the valley of red and orange rocks
A Changing Climate: Understanding Drought in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to drought in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of drought in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw activity. 
Lesson
Middle School
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Big Thompson Flood. Brown muddy flood water flows through street with en trees greand houses with blue and green roofs to the side
A Changing Climate: Understanding Floods in Colorado

This lesson is best taught at the beginning of a HEART Force unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to floods in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of flooding in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format. 
Lesson
Middle School
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A scenic mountain landscape with patches of melting snow on a rocky slope in the foreground. Below, a small turquoise alpine lake is surrounded by dense evergreen forest. In the distance, tall rugged peaks rise above the tree line under a partly cloudy sky
A Changing Climate: Understanding Wildfire in Colorado

This lesson is best used as part of the HEART Force curricular unit, but it can also act as a stand-alone lesson to introduce students to wildfire in Colorado.

 Students build an understanding of wildfire in Colorado using multiple data sources in a jigsaw format. 
Lesson
Middle School
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A large truck dumps trash into a landfill with a blue sky in the background.
How Can We Decrease Our Impact on the Earth’s Climate at our School?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which was designed to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this design challenge lesson students explore the Denver Public School District’s solid waste plan and discuss how their school can save or decrease emissions by reducing solid waste at our school.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A trash can overflowing with food such as lettuce, tomato, bread, banana, and a milk jug with a blue lid.
How Does Our School Food System Create Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this design challenge lesson, students examine their school food system and develop an investigation about food waste in order to know what should change.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A grocer checks milk on a shelf at a grocery store, the milk jugs have different colored caps of light blue, dark blue and red.
How Can We Understand Waste and Emissions in Our School's Food System?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 This lesson outlines for students how to design and carry out an investigation to audit their school’s food waste system.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A group of students using laptops at desks all pushed together to form one collaborative workspace.
How Can We Reduce Emissions Associated with Food Waste in Our School?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 In this activity students utilize the data that is collected and propose solutions to mitigate food waste in their school.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
A student stands while doing a presentation.
How Can We Present Solutions for Food Waste and Emissions at School?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Design Challenge Unit which is meant to follow the middle or high school Climate Resiliency Education units.

 This lesson provides guidance for students to create and practice a presentation about their design challenge results that they developed in the previous lessons and how to present it to the school administration.
Lesson
Design Challenge
Action Project
Middle School
High School
Sun flare refracting through leaves.
What Makes Cities Hotter?

This is the second lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students explore reasons why temperatures in particular Colorado cities are rising.
Lesson
Middle School
A satellite image is shown over the same image in infrared, showing that the paved sidewalks and roads retain more heat than homes and vegetation.
Why Are Growing Cities Hotter?

This is the third lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 This lesson has students explore what land use changes are happening and how changes in surface color affects temperatures in cities.
Lesson
Middle School
A surface temperature anomaly or trend map by NASA.
Are Other Parts of the World Getting Hotter?

This is the fourth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students investigate whether other parts of the world are changing and getting hotter just like Colorado.
Lesson
Middle School
A long line of cars in heavy traffic.
How Do Cars Impact CO2 in the Atmosphere?

This is the seventh lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 During this lesson, students explore how fossil fuel burning in cars contributes CO2 to the atmosphere.
Lesson
Middle School
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

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