Every Day is Earth Education Day at Nortel LearniT

Every Day is

 Earth Education Day

at Nortel LearniT

Nortel LearniT's curriculum supports Earth Day and environmental education and awareness every day! 

Resources include environmentally-focused lesson plans and activities for all ages:

• Learning about Animal Shelters for Earth Day (and every day): In this three-week unit, students learn about the habitats animals need and explore how to enhance their own school grounds in order to celebrate Earth Day and provide better shelters for local animals:

  • Week 1 Reviewing shelters and exploring animal shelters on school grounds.  Throughout the week the class takes digital pictues of school grounds animals and their habitats, discussing needs and writing journal reflections. 

  • Week 2 Next, students discuss Earth Day and how it has been celebrated previously.  Students then decide on a project to complete to enhance the school grounds and provide more shelters for animals, keeping in mind the needs of living things. 

  • Week 3:  Students create a PowerPoint digital "Our Animal Shelters" to share their photos and reflections with each other and other school groups.

• The Environment and You
  Students will be required to demonstrate an understanding of environmental issues gained through Internet research. They will expose examples of how environmental problems are evidenced and impacting their own communities through the planning and production of a video that will be shown to class members. It is expected that through this activity, the students will begin to develop a lifelong concern for their environment and demonstrate through their actions that they are indeed a generation that cares.
  
  
• Energy Crunch: Students learn about nonrenewable and renewable energy resources. They work in groups to research one form of renewable energy using the Internet. Each group will develop a PowerPoint presentation to highlight strengths of this energy resource. Using the PowerPoint presentation, they will speak before the "Energy Commission" to persuade the commission to fund more research for their form of renewable energy. 
  
  
• Animal Habitats (WebQuest) In this lesson, each student will be given the name of a specific animal. They will explore a WebQuest (created in PowerPoint) to learn about various habitats (desert, tundra, rainforest, forest, ocean) that will help determine where the animal would live and how this habitat meets the animal's needs (air, water, food, shelter). 
  
  
• Our Troubled World eCollage
  The students will study global issues through a combination of Internet research and interviews with local organizations. The students will develop a basic understanding of global issues though the initial research. Following that the students will focus on one issue and design an eCollage or brief video in which they express their concern or support.  Note: The eCollage technique may be integrated into any environmental lesson plan.
  
  
• Kids Newsbreaks
  Students will work in groups to identify a question relating to an issue or topic of study. This question should be phrased to grab the audience's attention and create interest in the topic. Centering on the question, students will create a 60-second "kids' newsbreak" highlighting information that begins to answer the question. Newsbreaks make use of a variety of media to inform and educate the public. Important information is included to "hook" the audience into wanting to learn more about a particular topic.  Note: the Newsbreaks techniques may be integrated into any environmental lesson plan.
  
  
• Disappearing Dirt
  Students will work with a partner to research various forms of erosion. They will analyze satellite images looking for erosion due to running water, wave action, wind, and weather. Based upon this research, students will create three PowerPoint slides to visualize change over time.