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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

A QGIS interface showing a detailed map of Greenland. The map uses a color gradient to display ice sheet surface elevation, with darker blues in the lower coastal regions and lighter colors toward the higher central ice cap. The Processing Toolbox is open on the right side with the "Surface volume report" tool highlighted, and the Layers panel on the left lists various geospatial data sources. Toolbars with icons for navigation, editing, and analysis functions appear along the top of the screen
From Greenland to our Coasts: Exploring Sea Level Change with QGreenland

This unit consists of 3 lessons, each tied to NGSS life science standards

 In this unit, students will explore how the Greenland Ice Sheet is changing and why that affects coastal communities worldwide. Students will view authentic Greenland geospatial data and learn how to create flood maps to assess local risk in QGIS.
Unit
Geospatial resource
High School
Out-of-school/Non-formal
QGreenland logo
Landscape shot of Greenland ice sheets in the background and rocks in the foreground. Two polar explorers stand on top of the rocks gazing out into the polar sheets.
Querying with QGreenland

These short, one-page tutorials are appropriate for beginner QGIS users. Users should have downloaded and opened both QGIS and the QGreenland project.

 These quick, one-page tutorials teach you how to analyze QGreenland datasets with beginner-level geoprocessing tools.
Lesson
Geospatial resource
High School
University/College
Out-of-school/Non-formal
QGreenland logo
The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 79% of the surface of Greenland. Greenland is located north of Canada and the United States. Map credit: QGreenland
Data Puzzle: Balancing Act

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.

 Since the early 2000s, the Greenland Ice Sheet’s mass balance has been consistently negative, meaning more mass is being lost than gained. But this change in mass balance hasn’t always happened at the same rate. What could account for observed changes to the amount of ice in the Greenland Ice Sheet in recent decades?
Lesson
Data Puzzle Resource
Geospatial resource
Middle School
High School
Data Puzzles Logo, QGreenland logo
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

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