Environment
Lessons Plans
Environmental Justice
Elementary Middle school High school
Source: Teaching Tolerance
Uses maps and graphs to explore how some natural disasters like the Gulf Oil Spill disproportionately affect people of color and those who live in poverty.
Grade Level: elementary -high school
Subject Area: social studies, geography
Reporting on Environmental Racism
Source: Teaching Tolerance
Explores the concept of environmental racism using print sources.
Grade Level: Middle -high school
Subject Area: social studies, science, health
Right to a Clean Environment Role-Play
Source: The Advocates for Human Rights
To help students gain an understanding of how the environment is connected to their daily lives and human rights.
Grade Level: 3-5
Subject Area: social studies, science, events
Speak Truth to Power: Wangari Maathai
Source: Speak Truth to Power Curriculum, RFK Center
Activities based on an interview with the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: science, environmental studies
The UDHR & Contemporary Issues
Source: HRE USA
This lesson asks students to correlate the UDHR to current newspaper articles which illustrate the portrayal of human rights in one of four situations (rights achieved, rights denied, rights violated, rights in conflict). Students will explain that situation, the correlation to the UDHR, and then write a reflection on the role of the UDHR in potentially resolving the situation.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies
Water Crisis Lesson Plans
Source: The Water Project
Students will explore issues including water scarcity, the effects of dirty and unsafe water, and the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene in a community. Students will learn about the different methods available to bring clean, safe water to a developing community. They will wrestle with the challenges of competing ideas and technical solutions. Then they’ll work as a team to discover the best way forward in a particular setting.
Grade Level: elementary – high school
Subject Area: social studies, international issues, earth sciences or writing,
Books
Aani and the Tree Huggers
Based on a true story from India in the 1970s. Aani and her community rely on the trees in their forest for their survival. When men come and start cutting down the trees, Aani takes drastic action to save the trees…and her village.
- Author: Jeannine Atkins
- Source: Lee & Low Books, 1995
- Price: about $9
- Grade Level: Upper elementary
- Subject Area: science, ecology
- Teaching guides available here.
Titles on the environment for children, young adults, and educators.
Environment/Climate Justice
Source: SocialJusticeBooks.org
Find lessons and additional resources for teaching about climate justice and the environment at the Zinn Education Project (coordinated by Teaching for Change and Rethinking Schools.)
Video
Chasing Ice
Director: Jeff Oriowski, Source: Submarine Deluxe, 2012
Description: Time-lapse cameras capture a multi-year record of the world’s “dying glaciers.” Teacher’s guides: Several available from Chasing Ice, Climate Generation, and Docs for Schools.
Time: 75 minutes
Grade Level: high school – adult
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet
Director: Mark Kitchel, Source: Bullfrog Films
Documentary of the development of the environmental movement. Teacher’s guide available on the DVD.
Time: 53 minutes
Grade Level: high school – adult
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Director: Lisa Merton, Alan Dater, Source: PBS
The story of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization encouraging rural women and families to plant trees in community groups, and follows Maathai, the movement’s founder and the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Prize. Modules and lesson plans available from PBS.
Time: various
Grade Level: middle school – adult
FOOD
Lesson Plans
The Story of Chocolate
Source: Young Minds Inspired
Introduces students to the history of the world’s favorite treat, and how sustainable growing practices have transformed cocoa farming around the globe. Includes a chef’s guide to the different types of chocolate, and a challenge to create recipes that add chocolate to every course of a meal.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, health, science
Exploring Food Justice
Source: Exploring Food Justice
The five lessons in this curriculum include looking at food sources, eating on a budget, hunger and privilege, taking action against food injustice.
Grade Level: elementary
Subject Area: social studies, science
Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger
Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organization
Each three lesson-unit provides learning activities on defining hunger, malnutrition, and food security. Includes an interactive forum, maps, and information on healthy eating.
Grade Level: elementary, middle, and high school
Subject Area: social studies, science, health, geography
Wasted Food
Source: John’s Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, FoodSpan
FoodSpan is a free, downloadable high school curriculum that highlights critical issues in the food system and empowers students to be food citizens. It is aligned to national education standards in science, social studies, health, and family and consumer sciences.
Grade Level: High school
Subject Area: social studies, science
Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum
Source: Grassroots International
This curriculum includes four modules with a collection of education-for-action exercises and factsheets that emphasizes informed activism.
Grade Level: high school – adults
Subject Area: social studies, environmental studies
Food Insecurity
Source: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
This multi-lesson unit defines and explores food security as a human right. Using videos about India, Nigeria, and Guatemala. Ideas for research and local exploration.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: Social studies, science, geography, environmental studies
HEALTH
Lesson Plans
The Edge of Joy: Combating Maternal Mortality in Nigeria
Source: Pulitzer Center
Lesson plan with video that examines the social, cultural, religious, and human resource factors contributing to maternal deaths and the work being done to reverse the current trend. Demonstrates the interrelated factors that create the right to health for women.
Grade Level: high school – adult
Subject Area: health, social studies, geography, women’s studies
Healthy Start
Source: The World’s Largest Lesson
To determine what is considered good health. • To find ways to practice good health. • To explore and remind about the importance of looking after yourself.
Grade Level: upper elementary
Subject Area: social studies, health, science
Health and Human Rights
Source: Against the Odds
Uses case studies to explore health as a basic human right.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, science
Heroes of AIDS in the Caribbean
Source: Pulitzer Center
A five-lesson unit that involves students in research on the AIDS crisis in different parts of the Caribbean, comparing responses, resources, attitudes, and outcomes. A study in the right to health.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, health, current events
Speak Truth to Power – Loune Viaud
Source: Speak Truth to Power Curriculum, RFK Center
Activities based on the Loune Viaud’s story of establishing healthcare systems in Haiti.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: science, environmental studies, health
Right to Health Toolkit
Type: Source: Advocates for Human Rights
Multi-faceted educational tool with background information, lesson plans, action opportunities, resources and more to help students learn about the right to health in the United States.
Grade Level: middle school – adult
Subject Area: social studies, science, current events
Understanding the Right to Health
Source: Human Rights: Yes! Action and Advocacy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Participants discuss what is necessary for good health and the government’s responsibility in ensuring the health of its people.
Grade Level: high school – adult
Subject Area: health, social studies, and government
Video
Rx for Survival – A Global Health Challenge
Producer: PBS
A series of videos about global health. Program 5 “Back to Basics” makes the connection between health and the enjoyment of human rights. Accompanying lesson plans available.
Time: 6 2-hour programs
Grade Level: middle school – adult
HIV/AIDS
Lesson Plans
AIDS: Responding to a Health Crisis
Source: PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Compares how different countries/cultures deal with AIDS, especially how attitudes and values about behaviors associated with AIDS affect the choices leaders and governments make in trying to treat and contain the disease.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, health, science, current events
HIV and AIDS
Source: Global Concerns Classroom
Students will understand and be able to analyze the HIV and AIDS epidemic and how it impacts people around the world.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, health, science
Heroes of AIDS in the Caribbean
Source: Pulitzer Center
Five lesson unit that involves students in research on the AIDS crisis in different parts of the Caribbean, comparing responses, resources, attitudes, and outcomes. A study in the right to health.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, health, current events
HIV/AIDS
Source: CDC Science Ambassador Program
Uses scientific research information to correct misconceptions, answer learning guides, and present posters on topics associated with HIV/AIDS. A review activity allows students to work together to summarize key points about HIV/AIDS, while simulating the contagiousness of a virus throughout the class.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: biology
HIV/AIDS Lessons and Activity Plans
Source: AVERT: Averting HIV and AIDS
Provides a number of activities designed for use with groups and aim to be effective by involving young people. Suitable for use with a wide range of young people but adaptable for use with younger and older age groups. Organized by available time. Covers facts, attitudes, prevention, and transmission.
Grade Level: elementary – adult
Subject Area: social studies, health, science
Mythbusters: HIV Transmission
Source: CDC Science Ambassador Program
A scientific introduction to HIV/AIDS. Emphasizes the communicability of viruses, the distinction between a virus and a disease, and correction of misinformation associated with HIV/AIDS.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: health, science
Video
AIDS at 30: Who’s at Greatest Risk of Infection?
Producer: PBS Newshour
A history of the pandemic from its first appearance to contemporary efforts to find a cure.
Time: 12:40 minutes
Grade Level: middle – high school
WATER
Earth’s Freshwater
Source: National Geographic
Seven-Unit Curriculum that explores the importance of water with vivid visuals, maps, and case studies. See especially Chapter 6, “Water and Human Communities.”
Grade Level: upper elementary
Subject Area: science, social studies
Exploring Downstream: Water Resources
Source: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Lesson Plan with multiple learning activities that uses videos to explore “water wars” between Kenya and Ethiopia, effects of climate change in South Asia, and desertification in China. Extension exercises for math, action, and research.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: Social studies, science, geography, environmental studies
The Global Water Crisis
Source: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Lesson Plan with multiple learning activities that uses World Water Day videos to discuss the growing global crisis in access to water. Offers research and action ideas
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: Social studies, science, geography
Human Rights and Sanitation
Source: Water-Aid
Curriculum with 7 lessons that differentiates between needs and wants and relates human needs to human rights. Links sanitation and water to basic needs. Developed in UK but easily adaptable.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, science
Rights to a Clean Environment Toolkit
Source: Advocates for Human Rights
A multi-faceted educational tools with background information, lesson plans, action opportunities, and resources that analyze the right to a clean environment in the United States. Includes K-2 lesson on the Right to Water.
Grade Level: K-12
Subject Area: social studies, current events
A Rights to Safe, Clean Water for Everyone?
Source: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Lesson Plan with multiple learning activities that explore different attitudes toward water as a human right, inviting evaluation of sources and research on global and local water issues.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: Social studies, science, geography
The Water Crisis: Lesson Plans for All Graces
Source: The Water Project
See especially the lesson “Dirty Water – So What?” which explores the potential impact of dirty water on hunger, poverty, education, and health.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, geography, science
Water on First Nation Reservation
Source: Development a Global Perspective for Educators
Using a Manitoba First Nations community news story, considers running water and sanitation as a human rights issue. Easily adapted to US context.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies, environmental studies, language arts
Water.Org
Source: Water.Org
Multiple lessons at every level regarding the global water crisis.
Grade Level: elementary-high school
Subject Area: social studies, science, environmental studies
Books
Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World
Shows the relationship with water of six children around the world and its importance in their lives
- Author: Beatrice Hollyer
- Publisher: Holt and Company, 2009
- Grade Level: elementary
- Subject Area: social studies, science, geography
Videos
Water Changes Everything
Producer: Charity: Water
Brief review of the causes and solutions of the global water crisis. See available lesson plan.
Time: 3 ½ minutes
Grade Level: middle – high school
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