Teaching Resources
Teaching environmental issues in your classroom is a critical component of providing your students a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience. Discover a wealth Chesapeake Bay related books, multimedia, curriculum guides, individual lesson plans and online data sources.
Begin by choosing the criteria for your search. It is only necessary to include the criteria you wish to use to limit your search. The more specific your search the more focused and narrow the results.
If you know of a great teaching resource that is not included in the Bay Backpack please let us know by suggesting a resource.
Subject
Level
All Levels- Early Learning
- Elementary School
- Middle School
- High School
Type
Alignment
Keywords
- All Keywords
- acid rain
- adaptation
- African American
- agriculture
- air pollution and fossil fuels
- aquatic grass SAV
- beaver
- biodiversity
- blue crab
- boats, canoes and kayaks
- climate change
- culture and watermen
- development
- dissolved oxygen
- Drinking Water
- economics
- ecosystem and biomes
- erosion
- experiments and investigations
- fish
- food web
- forest
- geocaching (GIS/GPS)
- Geography
- green development
- habitat and niche
- identification
- invasive species
- John Smith and colonial times
- land use
- litter, trash and recycling
- Native American
- nitrogen and carbon cycle
- non-point source
- orienteering
- Outdoor Activity
- oyster
- photosynthesis
- point source
- pollution
- population growth
- predator prey relationships
- renewable resource
- restoration
- salinity
- schoolyard habitat
- sediment, soil and rocks
- smart growth
- stormwater
- stream study
- student action
- Temperature
- transportation
- Underground Railroad
- water and energy conservation
water cycle and movement- water quality
- water testing
- watershed
- weather
- wetland
- wildlife
Groundwater Sourcebook
This source book contains 10 activities covering ground water issues.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Science
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, water quality
Virginia's Natural Resource Education Guide: Virginia's Bay & Coastal Resources
In the lesson plans that accompany the literature included in this packet, students will observe that muddy water blocks sunlight. They will consider ways that soil might get into water and make inferences about its effects on underwater grasses, crabs, and other animals. They will also dramatize connections between the sun, the earth, and eelgrass; and between people on land and blue crabs in an eelgrass environment.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, watershed, water quality, water testing
Salt Marsh in a Pan Activity
Students create a model of a salt marsh to discover the impact of pollution and human activities on water-based habitats including bays and the ocean. Model may also be used to demonstrate salt marsh functions, non-point source pollution and watershed concepts.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, wetland, watershed, experiments and investigations, salinity
A Journey with H2O Coloring Book
This educational coloring book from the U.S. Geological Survey guides students through the path of a raindrop.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities, Books and Publications
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, Drinking Water
The Water Cycle
Teach the water cycle to early education students through stories and easy experiments.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Early Learning
Keywords:
water cycle and movement
Properties of Water with a Splash of Color Lesson
Students explore the polar, cohesive forces and adhesion of water through the use of color.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Pennsylvania
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, experiments and investigations
How Low Can You Go Lesson
Students learn about ground water by creating a model aquifer, and creating a plastic bag book that models the water table.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement
Thirstin's Wacky Water Adventure Activity Book
A collection of activities and coloring book pages about the water cycle.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, Drinking Water
How People Get Their Water: Create a Reservoir Lesson
Students learn how a reservoir works by constructing a model reservoir in a box.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School
Keywords:
water cycle and movement
Conserve Water Educators Guide
This Project WET publication, the Conserve Water Educators Guide provides teachers of middle school and high school students with the ins and outs of water conservation. Background information offers a hydrologic primer; past, present, and future water conservation issues; and case studies ranging from a rancher in west Texas to an ice cream factory in Massachusetts. These real-life examples encourage students to use critical thinking skills to examine different sides of each situation.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Books and Publications
Level(s):
High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, watershed, water and energy conservation, water quality, wildlife
Can We Keep the Lake Clean Lesson
This lesson introduces students to the water cycle by having them help draw a picture of a lake ecosystem, adding human impacts that affect water quality. Students will help fill in the components of a drawing of a water system. They will conclude by creating their own illustrations of human-induced changes to the freshwater habitat of a lake ecosystem.
Subject(s):
Art, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
National Science Education
Keywords:
pollution, water cycle and movement, water quality, water testing
