General Environmental Education Resources

ACT GREEN! - Kids Tackle Climate Change
Scholastic has launched ACT GREEN! at www.scholastic.com/actgreen, a fun, educational website designed to motivate and empower kids to take action in school, at home and in their community to preserve the environment. This multi-media website provides kids, parents and teachers with customized green plans, expert tips, inspiring green short films provided by Live Earth, and a "Greenroom" to share ideas with other kids.

Alliance for Community Trees
Urban forestry is not an oxymoron, but rather the idea that trees in cities provide unique benefits such as energy efficiency, stormwater management, and economic development. In fact, your city or town many have an urban forester! The Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) is a coalition of more than 150 urban forestry groups in 39 states... one likely near you. Many of these organizations specialize in K-12 educational programs.  Contact an urban forestry organization near you today, and ask them to visit your classroom or help organize a fieldtrip, or visit ACT to find out more about urban forestry: www.actrees.org.

Audubon Adventures
Audubon Adventures is an environmental education program for children in grades 3 to 5. Developed by professional environmental educators, it presents basic, scientifically accurate facts about birds, wildlife, and their habitats.. The program is used by classroom teachers, after-school program coordinators, special education instructors, language arts teachers, and homeschoolers and is aligned with the national standards for the language arts and science as well as state academic achievement standards in CA, DE, FL, IL, MO, NM, NV, NY, OH, PA, TX, WY.

Center for Environmental Education Online
The Center for Environmental Education Online is a dynamic resource for educators and students, founded by Jayni and Chevy Chase. Since its creation CEE has been a vital link between the ‘in-the-trenches" educators and the abundant environmental resources available. CEE provides important connections for countless in-service teachers and in-the-field educators bringing accurate, interesting, timely and inspiring teaching materials and educational resources into schools and classrooms.

Cool School Challenge
The Cool School Challenge educates young people about climate change and the everyday actions they can take to reduce their impact locally and globally. Designed for grades 7-12, the Challenge is an online toolkit that engages students and teachers in practical strategies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions schoolwide. Through improved energy efficiency, reduced consumption, increased recycling and changes in transportation behaviors, Challenge participants learn how simple actions, taken together, can create a climate of change.

Earth Man
The Earthman Project is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization using music, the arts, and technology to inspire people to protect our Earth’s environment.

Environmental Literacy Council
The Environmental Literacy Council website offers a virtual library of the environment with primers explaining topics in environmental science; freely accessible labs and activities developed with nationally recognized organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association; and science-based reviews of the textbooks students use everyday.

Encyclopedia of the Earth
Encyclopedia of the Earth is a new electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles that are written in non-technical language that is useful to students, educators, scholars, professionals, as well as to the general public.

The Future of Life, Inc.
The Future of Life is a non-profit organization with national programs like Trees for the 21st CenturyTM that offer adults tools to help lead young people ages 6-18 in scientifically-based environmental activities; encouraging them to take action which can be repeated and expanded as participants grow in knowledge and capacity.

Nature Explore Club for Educators
The Nature Explore Club Educator Edition gives preschool through 3rd grade teachers an easy and affordable way to use the outdoors as an integral part of learning.  Correlates to National Science, Math, Visual Arts, and Social Studies standards.  Developed by the National Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation.  See the link above for ordering information.  

Roots and Shoots
Roots & Shoots, a program of the Jane Goodall Institute, is a powerful, youth-driven, global network of more than 8,000 groups in almost 100 countries. Together, youth of all ages are taking action to improve our world through service learning projects that promote care and concern for animals, the environment and the human community.

Science Buddies
Science Buddies is the premier online source of K-12 science project information for educators, students, and parents. The site offers everything an educator needs to help guide students through a science project including a large library of free project ideas in 26 fields of science and engineering, a Topic Selection Wizard to help students find a topic they will enjoy, a step by step project guide based on the scientific method, grading rubrics, and many other resources designed to make science projects a fun educational experience.

Smart Consumers: An Educator’s Guide to Exploring Consumer Issues and the Environment
Smart Consumers is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary guide that helps middle school students learn more about how their consumer choices affect the environment and how they can make a difference by buying differently. The toolkit includes an Educator's Guide with background information; fourteen hands-on and creative activities that range from analyzing pop song lyrics and advertisements to acting out product life cycles and calculating ecological footprints; an annotated list of resources for more information; and more.  Please see the link above for ordering information; if you would like to inquire about a discount on bulk orders, please contact New American Dream's outreach department at outreach@newdream.org.

The Weather Channel’s Weather Classroom
The experts at The Weather Channel have created The Weather Classroom as a resource for educators, students and parents. Weatherclassroom.com offers a comprehensive collection of weather-related content, including lesson plans for educators, an interactive weather forecast for students, and a weather word glossary and storm encyclopedia for parents.