The Pathway to Rewarding Careers in Construction

Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. It was originally set for late April to capture the attention of college students before they left school for the summer. Here’s a short PBS video about the first Earth Day suitable for grades 6 through 12.

Today, Earth Day is a worldwide educational and activism event marked by more than 1 billion people every year on April 22, according to EarthDay.org.

Many organizations celebrate the weeks leading up to Earth Day as Earth Month. It is an opportunity to take part in activities and learn about sustainability and climate solutions. Below, we take a look at some lesson plans, activities and books with sustainability ideas for kids that you might enjoy exploring with your children as part of their online school science curriculum.  

A Sustainability Definition For Kids

Sustainability has become a mainstream topic in the 21st century, and its application to our daily lives takes many forms. One sustainability definition for kids says sustainability refers to using resources in such a way that they will continue to be available in the future. Practicing sustainability takes into account the economic, social, and environmental impact of a decision or action. This applies to:

• Water conservation to ensure continued access to safe drinking water. Water conservation is also especially important in agriculture, because growing food for the world consumes much more water than any other activity. Here are some home garden sustainability projects to share with your school-age child.

• Sustainable energy production through the use of renewable resources, like solar power, wind power, and waterpower (hydroelectricity).

• Sustainable development of our physical environment through infrastructure and housing construction that uses recycled materials as well as site selection and building design that work in harmony with the local ecosystem.

• Sustaining the air we breathe by limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases that build up in the atmosphere. 

These are broad issues with widespread impact that, in the long run, will be positive or negative depending on how well they are accepted, understood, and addressed. They may seem complex for kids focused on dealing with k-12 subjects in an online or virtual classroom environment. But when we define sustainability for kids as ensuring that resources continue to be available in the future, it’s their future we’re talking about. Let’s get our kids thinking about their future.

An Earth Month Sustainability Curriculum

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rounded up a trove of science-based lesson plans, activities, ideas, and resources for teaching sustainability and the environment. Materials suitable for different grade levels are presented on printable PDFs and may require some introduction, set up, and instruction from your child's Learning Coach.

Here are some lessons and activities about water, air and energy sustainability, waste, and recycling that you and your student might enjoy:

Exploring Your Watershed

Grades K-6. (Also available in Spanish.) When rain falls and trickles into a nearby body of water, different things can happen to the rain along the way. This three-part lesson module gets students outdoors to map and simulate their own watershed. They’ll learn:

• What a watershed is and how it works
• Characteristics of ecosystems, such as forested area, creek, pond, field, etc.
• How humans can change their behavior to protect local watersheds and to describe solutions to problems associated with their local watershed.

Learning About Acid Rain

Grades 6-8. This book is written at a 6th grade level, and its language, concepts, and experiments may need adapting for other grades. It offers essays, experiments, and activities intended to help students better understand the science, cause and effect, and regulatory and citizen actions that are part of understanding and addressing acid rain.

Generate! Game

Grades 6-12. This interactive board game developed by EPA scientists teaches the costs and benefits of the energy choices we make. Players compete as they explore energy choices and their impact on the environment and learn the considerations and costs that go into deciding what type of energy generation system to build. Click through above for printable game boards, game pieces, instruction manual, and an instructor’s guide, plus a tutorial for playing online via Google Jamboard.

The Quest for Less

Grades K-8. Here’s more than 200 pages worth of fact sheets, games, activities, journal writing assignments, and other educational tools designed for various grade levels, plus teachers’ notes in PDF form. A separate table of contents helps you find and print out relevant material about natural resources, consumer products, waste, and source reduction and recycling.

Sustainability Books For Kids

Reading is the best way to learn. Here are some books about the environment and caring for Mother Earth.

“Why is Coco Orange?”

Coco has a problem in this online PDF for kids ages 4-8. He is a chameleon, but he cannot change colors, and his asthma is acting up. Read how Coco and his friends at Lizard Lick Elementary solve this mystery as they learn about air quality and how to stay healthy when the air quality is bad.

“Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World”

If your child is interested in environmentalism but not quite ready for “Silent Spring,” this is an award-winning elementary-grade level biography of the pioneering scientist and environmentalist – a tale about a strong and brilliant woman. “Carson emerges as a proud, conscientious woman who never allowed the constraints of her era to interfere with her convictions,” Publishers Weekly said.

“Silent Spring”

This is the book that launched the environmental movement when it was published in September 1962. Reaction to Rachel Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet forced the banning of DDT and spurred changes in law that affected our air, land, and water. However, a critic’s re-reading in 2011, which called it a “profoundly important book” that is “brilliantly written: clear, controlled and authoritative,” also said, “I was relieved to get to the end of it: awful warnings have a way of making you feel awfully low-spirited.”

“The Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act”

Have you ignited the fire under a budding climate activist? Help them get up to speed about air pollution with this introduction to the 1990 Clean Air Act, the most recent version of a law first passed in 1970 to clean up air pollution. This 20-page summary explains different types of air pollution and how they occur and covers some of the important provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act and how it may affect the reader.

“Living Simply: A Teen Guide to Minimalism”

Originally founded in the post-World War II art world, minimalism has evolved into an Earth-friendly lifestyle focusing on the three Rs (reducing, recycling, and reusing) to minimize one’s carbon imprint. Is your teen ready to do their part to save the environment? The guide explains how and why to embrace minimalism with hands-on activities, tips, and real-world examples from practicing minimalists. It’s available for Kindle readers, of course.

Here are eight more hands-on Earth Day activities for kids, and a Composting 101 for young recyclers. And don’t forget, we’re not alone on this planet! Here are some ideas about how kids can help animals for Earth Day and Earth Month.

Part of STEM learning is seeing and doing, and then recording and analyzing the results. But not all online or homeschool programs are set up to accommodate science experiments, in-depth remote calculus tutoring or other STEM learning activities, especially as they get more involved at the middle school or high school level. 

Online or virtual labs can make more complex science experiments and concepts accessible to online and home school students who don’t have the laboratories and equipment they might find in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. According to the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), virtual labs provide concrete experiences that help students understand science concepts while allowing them to work at their own time and pace. 

There are many online school options that provide a virtual lab to complement the science curriculum, like Connections Academy®. Let’s take a look at a few that can help bring STEM topics alive for your child’s online school experience. 

Four Free Virtual Labs Activity Sources

1. NOVA Labs

NOVA Labs is based on the long-running PBS science documentary series from WGBH TV, and it has all the slickness of a first-class television production. It is meant to engage teens and older students in games and interactives based on authentic scientific exploration. Informative videos review the science concepts and the “game” that puts the concepts to use. Comprehensive educators’ guides explain how to use all or portions of the eight available virtual labs to educate students and contain links to complementary videos and other resources. 

2. Interactive Simulations for Science and Math

Interactive Simulations for Science and Math are from the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder. Tech & Learning calls it, “One of the richest single repositories of online science interactives and virtual labs. Investigate more than 150 physics, chemistry, math, biology, and Earth science topics. Available in dozens of languages, the interactives are searchable by grade level, subject, and accessibility. Accessibility options include alternative input, audio descriptions, and pan-and-zoom functionality. The University of Colorado Boulder team even found a way to incorporate Java sims so that you can easily run one in your browser window.” 

3. Space Exploration Simulations

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) features many STEM learning activities for students in grades K-12. The interactive simulations are also gamified and make learning engaging and fun for your student. This augmented reality app for high school students allows students to virtually “meet” the female space science heroes that paved the way for other female scientists. A collaboration between the Smithsonian and NASA, the app allows users to explore the universe and unlock stories of trailblazing scientists and their contributions to space exploration and science.  

4. Weather Laboratories

Earth’s weather is complex and fascinating. To make learning about weather accessible and fun, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) created a hub of informative weather activities and virtual labs they recommend for students and educators. In fact, their weather science content for kids features a Weather Lab application by the Smithsonian that allows middle school students to take on the role of meteorologist, predict weather patterns, and learn what happens when ocean currents and air masses interact.  

More Sources of STEM Activities

Promoting STEM ­­– science, technology, engineering, and math – studies is a national educational initiative, which Connections Academy® fully supports and works to bring to students at our online home schools. You can encourage your child to dive deeper into science topics with these 10 resources for exploring STEM. 

You’ve probably heard about STEM, the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts into your child’s educational program. STEM concepts make up a centerpiece of our country’s comprehensive education recommendations, and are a part of the Connections Academy® K–12 online school curriculum.  

Nationwide, growth in STEM careers is expected to outpace(opens in a new tab) that of any other occupational category by 8 percent by 2029. Thanks to this interest, STEM experiments can be great additions to virtual school or homeschooling programs, or to supplement the interests of a student attending a brick-and-mortar school.  

The Importance of STEM

STEM activities teach students to investigate and engineer solutions to problems, and to construct evidence-based explanations of real-world phenomena. That’s in keeping with the scientific method, a process for experimentation used to explore, make observations, and answer questions.  

Here are three STEM activities for your high school student to experiment with at home. They will make observations, answer questions, and still have a bit of fun. 

Download our 3 STEM Activities Here 

1. How to Make a Lava Lamp

Learn how to make a lava lamp from home with this STEM science activity. 

Maybe on your next Throwback Thursday, help your student hone their observation skills with this demonstration of chemical reactions, gas, and surface tension. Source(opens in a new tab). 

What You’ll Need:

• Effervescent antacid tablet (e.g., Alka-Seltzer) 
• Vegetable oil 
• Water 
• Tall clear plastic container (1- or 2-liter bottle) 
• Food coloring or beet juice 

What to Do:

1. Fill the bottle about 2/3 full with oil. 
2. Add 8 to 10 drops of food coloring. 
3. Fill the rest of the bottle with water to a few inches below the brim. 
4. Add a half or quarter of an antacid tablet to the bottle. 

What You’ll Learn:

Oil floats on the water because it is less dense than water. The two do not mix because water is composed of polar molecules(opens in a new tab) and oil is composed of nonpolar molecules. The antacid tablet is denser than the oil or the water, so it sinks and begins to dissolve when it hits the water. The chemicals in the tablet react with each other to create bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. The gas makes the bubbles less dense than the water and the oil, so they float to the surface. Meanwhile, because the water is attracted to itself and not the oil, the water-and-gas mixture moves through the oil in a “ball.” 

When a ball of water and gas gets to the surface, some carbon dioxide gas bubbles pop, which makes the remaining gas and water ball denser than the oil. So, the now-heavier ball of water and gas sinks back through the oil to re-join the water. 

Changes in density as gas is added or escapes from bubbles of water causes them to float or sink and create a “lava lamp effect.” A real lava lamp has liquids of similar density. When it is plugged in, heat (usually from a light bulb) causes portions of the slightly less dense liquid to rise, and as it cools near the surface, fall again. The “lava” changes in slow motion because heat absorption and dissipation happen slowly, and the density changes are very slight. 

2. How to Build a Bridge

Learn how to design and build a bridge from home with this STEM engineering activity. 

This project demonstrates engineering concepts. A bridge must bear the weight of the people and/or materials that cross it. A beam-style bridge, most easily illustrated as a log across a stream, becomes weaker as the beam becomes longer. Eventually, we need a design that distributes weight better. In some regions, bridges are also expected to be earthquake resistant. So, how do you design a bridge that is long enough, strong enough, and can withstand an earthquake?

What You’ll Need:

• Paper and pencil 
• Popsicle sticks (from a craft store) 
• Glue 
• Tape 
• Books 
• 2 chairs 

What to Do:

1. Research common types of bridges, such as beam, arch, truss, cantilever, suspension, and cable-stayed (see Page 2 at the link above). 
2. Design your bridge! Draw your design on paper. 
3. Using popsicle sticks and glue, build a bridge that is at least 12 inches long. 
4. Once the glue dries, tape (or get help to hold) your bridge between two chairs. 
5. Place a book or two on the center of your bridge. Does the bridge hold? 
6. Simulate an earthquake by shaking the chairs a little, then more and more. 
7. If your bridge didn’t stay up, redesign it and try again. 
8. If it did stay up, make it longer and test it again. 

What You’ll Learn:

By building bridges with arches or trusses (triangle shapes), or supportive cables (suspension or cable-stayed), the weight and other forces on the bridge are spread out. This allows bridges to span larger gaps. Flexible joints and materials might allow a bridge to move and shake without breaking during an earthquake. Try loosely taping your bridge together instead of gluing it.

3. Learn How the Doppler Effect Works

Learn how the doppler effect works, and how to measure it with this STEM physics activity that can be done from home.  

When the source of a sound moves in relation to you, its pitch changes. Think about the sound of a car zooming past you on the street. The sound doesn’t change. It’s your perception of the sound that changes. This is known as the “Doppler effect,” and this STEM experiment shows you how it works. Source(opens in a new tab). 

What You’ll Need:

• Tennis ball or whiffle ball (that you can cut open) 
• Knife 
• A 9-volt battery and connector 
• A 9-volt buzzer (a high-pitched one works best) 
• Scrap paper to pack inside the ball  
• Heavy rubber bands or tape 
• Strong string 
• Optional: Toggle (on/off) switch (available at hardware stores) 

What to Do:

1. Cut a slit halfway around the ball with a sharp knife. 
2. Connect one wire from one terminal on the battery to the wire from one terminal on the buzzer. (Be sure to connect the buzzer terminal—(+) or (–)—to the matching battery terminal.) 
3. There will be a wire connected to the remaining terminal on the battery and another wire connected to the remaining terminal on the buzzer. Place both battery and buzzer inside the ball, leaving these two unconnected wire ends sticking out of the ball. 
4. Pack the ball loosely with paper, positioning the buzzer close to the inner surface of the ball. 
5. Twist the remaining two wires together to turn the buzzer on, then close the ball and secure the wires with rubber bands or tape. To turn the buzzer on and off more conveniently, wire a toggle switch into your circuit. 
6. Attach the ball securely to a string and twirl it around your head, or toss the ball back and forth with a partner. You might also have a group of students toss the ball around. 
7. Notice how the pitch of the buzzer changes as the ball approaches you or moves away from you. 

What You’ll Learn:

As an oscillator (the buzzer) moves toward you it is, in effect, catching up (slightly) with its own sound waves. With each successive pulse of the buzzer, the sound source is a little closer to you, so the waves are squeezed together and more of them reach your ear each second than they would if the buzzer were standing still. This makes the pitch of the buzzer sound higher. As the buzzer moves away from you, fewer waves reach your ear each second, so the pitch sounds lower. The frequency of the buzzer itself does not change. 

For your ears to detect this effect—the Doppler effect—the sound source has to be moving toward or away from you at a minimum speed of about 15 to 20 mph (24 to 32 kph). The faster the sound source moves, the more pronounced the effect becomes. 

If the buzzer has a frequency of 100 hertz, and it is moving toward you through still air at 35 meters per second, then the pitch you hear will be 110 hertz. This result comes from the equation: 

pitch = f/(1–v/vs)

In this equation, f is the frequency, v is the speed of the source of the sound, and vs is the speed of sound, which is 350 meters per second. If the object is moving away from you, simply replace the minus sign with a plus sign. 

The Doppler effect is also observed with light. In the case of light, it’s the color that changes. As an object moves away, it becomes slightly redder. As an object approaches, it appears bluer. This effect allows astronomers to determine whether galaxies are coming closer or moving away from us, and even how fast they’re moving. The bigger the “red shift,” the faster they’re moving away. 

Keep Your Students Exploring with Additional STEM Activities

Promoting your kids’ interest in STEM concepts will serve them well in the future. Each of the sources of our STEM experiments above has several more activities on their sites to try. For your elementary and middle school students, here are five STEM activities for kids that you can do at home.   

Whether your student is enrolled in a traditional brick-and-mortar school, is homeschooled, or is attending a virtual school like Connections Academy, the STEM fun doesn’t have to stop here. Check out these additional resources to encourage your student to explore STEM concepts.