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.
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- Art
Language Arts- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Technology
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
> Virginia 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
Virginia's Natural Resource Education Guide: Virginia's Agricultural Resources
Students will learn the difference between colonial and modern farming practices in Virginia. They will look at data on farming income, harvesting dates and crop types.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
land use, agriculture, erosion, sediment, soil and rocks
Project Learning Tree Curriculum Guide
The Project Learning Tree Curriculum Guide is a collection of 96 hands-on interdisciplinary activities that bring the environment into your classroom. The guide is designed so you can use a single activity or many over the course of a quarter or school year. Each activity includes an overview, background content and a teachers' step-by-step guide. The guide's five main themes are diversity, interrelationships, systems, structure and scale, and patterns of change.
Subject(s):
Art, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland,
Virginia,
New York,
West Virginia,
District of Columbia,
Delaware,
National Science Education,
Pennsylvania
Keywords:
pollution, land use, watershed, air pollution and fossil fuels, biodiversity, forest
Outdoor Scavenger Hunt and Journaling Activity
Provides a list of items students can find in their schoolyard as well as a reflection activity.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
schoolyard habitat
Adopt A Tree Lesson
Students will discover the importance of trees by adopting a tree and observing the tree over several visits throughout the year. Students will observe the tree's seasonal changes, discover the life history of a tree, and witness a wide variety of birds, insects and mammals that live in trees.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
forest, habitat and niche, schoolyard habitat
Bay and Pond Food Webs Lesson
Students will examine the food web of aquatic and estuarine ecosystems by acting out the Bay food web and diagramming the flow of energy through it. Students will also discuss the impact of pollution, loss of underwater grasses, and over-fishing on the Bay's animal resources.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
wetland, food web, habitat and niche, stream study, wildlife
A Scientific Cleanup Lesson
Students will learn about problems associated with litter and marine debris. They will design an experiment to investigate litter distribution, make predictions of litter distribution, and participate in a cleanup at the site. Based on the data students collect, they will make conclusions relating litter to the local ecosystem as well as human health and safety.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
experiments and investigations, litter, trash and recycling, stream study, water quality
Who Killed SAV Lesson
Students will investigate the major causes of aquatic grass (SAV) decline. Students will examine four major causes of bay grass decline and evaluate the level to which certain natural and human factors led to the decline of bay grasses.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
development, aquatic grass SAV, water quality
Wetlands: Here All Year Lesson
Students will investigate the different types of wetlands and their seasonal characteristics. Students will create models of wetland habitats, compare and contrast various types of wetlands and conduct an experiment on a schoolyard puddle. They will analyze the data from the puddle experiment to determine weather's effect on the results.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
wetland, weather, experiments and investigations
Wasting Water Lesson
Students will learn why its important to conserve water and the common ways water is wasted. Students will estimate the volume of water on earth and calculate volumes and costs of wasted water. Students will then compose a list of ways to conserve water.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
water and energy conservation
Types of Pollution Lesson
Students will examine different types of water pollution and their effect on the estuarine ecosystem. Students will classify examples of pollution, using a Venn diagram, and graph the number of examples of each type. They will learn why there are rules and laws regulating the release of pollution into water and devise alternatives and solutions to pollution problems.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
pollution, point source, non-point source, litter, trash and recycling
Stream Creatures: Clues to Stream Health Lesson
Students will investigate the relationship between the health of macroinvertbrates and the health of the streams. Students will study the adaptations of some macroinvertebrates that enable them to spend part or all of their life cycle in a stream ecosystem and observe the effects of erosion and other pollution on stream macroinvertebrates and infer pollution's effects on the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. Keywords: stream, water quality, habitat, macroinvertebrate, adaptation, pollution, erosion
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
habitat and niche, stream study, water quality, wildlife
Riparian Buffers Lesson
Students will examine how riparian buffers protect tributaries from polluted runoff by building a watershed model to illistrate the role of bufferes in proecting waterways. Students will form hypotheses, conduct an experiment, report findings, and draw conclusions.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
forest, restoration
Native vs. Non-Native Species: Who Will Win Lesson
Students will explore the effects that human introduced non-native species have on estuarine ecosystems. Students will research non-native species that have caused problems in water and land habitats of the Chesapeake Bay, and classify them by habitat and by Kingdom. Students will then predict the percent of non-native plants in the schoolyard, identify plants, and classify them as native or non-native.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
invasive species, ecosystem and biomes, habitat and niche
Muddying the Waters Lesson
Students will examine the effect sedimentation has on water quality by conducting an experiment to observe the effects of sediment on water quality. Students will then generate ideas for reducing sediment in their community.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
stormwater, erosion, experiments and investigations, sediment, soil and rocks
Journey of a Raindrop to the Chesapeake Bay Lesson
Students will use political and topographic maps to learn path a raindrop takes when traveling from the schoolyard to the Chesapeake Bay. Students will observe schoolyard surfaces and direction of water flow and infer the polluting or non-polluting effects of those surfaces on rain runoff.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
pollution, non-point source, watershed
Grasses, Grasses Everywhere Lesson
Students will investigate the properties of aquatic grasses (SAV) and compares them to the grass in the school yard. Students will learn how to observe, analyze, classify and compare grasses.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
aquatic grass SAV, schoolyard habitat
Going for Water Lesson
Students will compare the experience of hauling one's own water, as described in Robert Frost's poem Going for Water, to the modern convenience of electric plumbing. They will predict the amount of water a student uses in a day and the amount of time it would take to haul that volume by hand. Then measure the time to the nearest minute that it takes each student to carry the water 50 yards.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
culture and watermen, water and energy conservation
Does it Soak Right In Lesson
Students will which types of land surfaces allow water to soak in, and which cause water to run off the ground. Students will predict the percolation properties of various land surfaces and test various land surfaces and measure and compare the percolation rates.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
water cycle and movement, watershed, development, stormwater
Captain John Smith's Chesapeake Bay Lesson
Students will compare and contrast the Chesapeake bay of today verses the Chesapeake bay of John Smith's day. They will read excerpts from Smith's description of his exploration of the Bay and its rivers and analyze Smith's map of the Chesapeake.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
land use, watershed, culture and watermen, John Smith and colonial times
A River Runs Through It Lesson
Students will explore the impact land use can have on rivers by assessing the impact of a variety of land use scenarios on the health of an imaginary river. They will recommend changes that reduce the impact that each land use scenario has on the river and assess the impact of land use in their schoolyard.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
land use, watershed, development, stream study, water quality
"On the Air" Curriculum Units 1-7
The On the Air curriculum facilitates the understanding of air pollution by studying: Criteria Air Pollutants, the Air Quality Index, Ozone, Particulate Matter, the Health Effects of Air Pollution, Community Sources and Solutions of Air Pollution and Climate Change. Each unit consists of the following: activity description, curricular ties, time needed, learning objectives, materials needed (kit), teacher preparation, teacher background reading, teacher demonstration procedures, activity procedures, technology connections, student handout, student packets and student worksheets.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide, Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland,
Virginia,
District of Columbia
Keywords:
climate change, acid rain, air pollution and fossil fuels
Jamestown in the Media: Distinguishing Fact from Opinion Lesson
Newspaper articles are a mix of fact and opinion. The articles written about the recent archaeological findings at Historic Jamestowne are no different. Students participating in this exercise will use their reading comprehension and critical thinking skills to separate fact from opinion.
Subject(s):
Language Arts
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
John Smith and colonial times
Henry Spelman: The Powhatan Indians' English Boy
Henry Spelman was an English teenager who was among the first settlers at Jamestown. He lived with the local Indians for several years and gives us a unique perspective in this auto-biographical excerpt. This exercise will test students' reading comprehension and writing skills.
Subject(s):
Language Arts
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
John Smith and colonial times, Native American
Powhatan Living Lesson
Using colonist William Strachey's account of a Powhatan settlement, students will interpret how the Powhatan people built their homes and produced food throughout the year.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
Native American
