EcologyFund for Teachers: Links

The links below are our favorite environmental education resources. We have personally reviewed hundreds of sites pertaining to environmental education, and we think these are the best. We have grouped them into categories to make your search easier.

General Teaching Sites

TeachersFirst A comprehensive web resource for K-12 classroom teachers who want useful resources and lesson plans. The "Content Matrix" provides a quick overview of all the TeachersFirst classroom resources and lesson materials. AboutSchool Provides resources for teachers, parents, and students (pre-K-high school) in a wide range of school subjects. Site lists individual state's resources, professional organizations' web sites with membership information, national and international conferences dates, links to other educational web sites, message boards, and a teacher career section.

Environmental Education Sites

Environmental Education on the Internet EE-Link is a participant in the Environmental Education and Training Partnership (EETAP) of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). The site provides a comprehensive list of resource links for teachers and students, information on environmental education organizations, jobs and grants, and environmental information. ARKive Education ARKive Education is a site for teachers and other educators � and offers downloadable briefings, lesson plans and project ideas to support curriculum learning targets. It is free to use. ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Math, and Environmental Education The goal of the site is to provide access to the best information available for teaching and learning about science, mathematics, and the environment. Office of Environmental Education (OEE) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) The mission of the OEE is to advance and support education efforts that develop an environmentally conscious and responsible public and inspire personal responsibility in caring for the environment. Site includes section for kids, teachers, and older students with a host of age-appropriate activities. Unique to this site are links to environmentally-oriented community service projects for students, EPA grants and awards, environmental laws, EPA publications, and a dictionary of terms related to the environment. International Education and Resource Network I*EARN enables young people to undertake projects designed to make a meaningful contribution to the health and welfare of the planet and its people through telecommunications. It has a whole list of projects centered around science, environment, math, and technology, including YouthCaN, Planetary Notions (PN) the Local Birds Project, The Wetlands Project , and the Flowers and Symbols Project. State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) SEER is a cooperative program that helps state education agencies in their efforts to strengthen the role of environment-based educational approaches in K-12 curricula and systemic reform efforts. SEER members coined the term EIC, using the Environment as an Integrating Context, to represent the type of environment-based education that they seek to promote. Site includes SEER contact information, list of staff, EIC studies, and educational and environmental links. Also available on the site is EdGateway, a web-based tool that helps EIC educators work together and share information and resources. Conservation and Environmental Maps American Memory, the Library of Congress' "gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States," offers this gem of a site on exploration and land use in the US. These historic and recent maps will be of great interest to ecologists, as they show "changes in the landscape, including natural and man-made features, recreational and wilderness areas, geology, topography, wetland area, vegetation, and wildlife." The site may be searched by keyword or browsed by Subject Index, Creator Index, Geographic Location Index, or Title Index. Green Teacher Green Teacher is a magazine written by and for teachers and parents to enhance environmental education across the curriculum at all grade levels. With fifty pages of ideas and activities, Green Teacher is published four times a year. Contact and ordering information are available on-line, as well as select articles and links to other environmental resources. Cloud Forest Alive The Cloud Forest Alive Web site, associated with the Tropical Science Center and Forum One Communication, provides a host of information on the biologically diverse cloud forests of Central America. The site contains a large amount of information on several aspects of the forest, including many attractive photographs. A recent highlight is one of the sites online cameras, the Quetzal Cam. Highlights from this year's Quetzal Cam show the activities within the nest, including incubation, the hatchling birds, and an intruding weasel that brought an end to the chicks' short lives. The Web cam photos are a little difficult to see, but they can be enlarged by clicking on each photo individually. The site seems to continually update its content, making it a site that users can visit often to develop a broader understanding of these unique forests. Ecological Society of America's Education Section: Edweb and WWW Ecology Course Syllabus Exchange This site is maintained by Bruce Grant, Ph.D., professor of ecology at Widener University and Chair of ESA Education Section. The site provides information and assistance to anyone who teaches ecological concepts and principles. It includes experiments to teach ecology, K-16 faculty enhancement projects, web teaching resources, and access to the a discussion group, EcoTeach, that allows undergraduate teachers to share lesson plans, lab approaches, and teaching methods. There is also a special section called WWW Ecology Course Syllabus Exchange where professors from universities across the country provide access to their on-line syllabi. GreenTimes Global Habitat Project's mission is to excite and inform youngsters about the environment, motivate them to protect and care for the natural world, and help them become confident lifelong leaders. The website and all of the organization's publications are written by kids for kids. If your students can't find what they are looking for, they can write their own article or poem to teach other kids about what they've learned. This site includes a comprehensive list of links and activities for kids and teachers. Natural World Museum The Natural World Museum (NWM) is a mobile and global cultural institution - a "museum without walls" - that operates as the premier international art organization partnering with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Art for the Environment

Sustainable Education Sites

Earthwatch Institute The mission of the Earthwatch Institute is to promote sustainable conservation of natural resources and cultural heritage by creating partnerships between scientists, educators and the general public through research, education, and conservation. Earthwatch awards fellowships to high school teachers and students that allow them to take part in research, develop new skills, and develop a deeper understanding of their role in building a sustainable future. The site includes online resources and lesson plans and allows for virtual field trips.

Fun Activities for Environmental Education

Dive and Discover Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute provides this wonderful educational site about discovery and exploration of the deep seafloor. Dive and Discover "brings you right on board" oceanographic research cruises to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The latest expedition, now underway, is Expedition 4 to the Central Indian Ridge where researchers are looking for new hydrothermal vent organisms. Visitors to Dive and Discover can read daily updates on research activity, weather and view color photographs recently taken by the crew of Expedition 4. The "mail buoy" feature even allows folks to email questions to researchers on board the ship! This site gives detailed information about the physical and biological science of hydrothermal vents, oceanographic tools used in the expedition, and plate tectonics. Journey North: A Global Study of Wildlife Migration The journeys of a dozen migratory species�birds, whales, insects, turtles are tracked each spring. Students share their own field observations with classrooms across the Western Hemisphere. In addition, students are linked with scientists who provide their expertise directly to the classroom. Several migrations are tracked by satellite telemetry, providing live coverage of individual animals as they migrate. Over 4,500 schools, representing more than 250,000 students in all 50 U.S. states and 7 Canadian provinces, participated in the Spring, 2000 Journey North Program. Miss Maggie's Earth Adventures Miss Maggie's Earth Adventures is a free, environmental education web site available on CD ROM or web site. Designed for upper elementary school teachers and students, the program documents Miss Maggie's travels around the world through a series of interactive missions. The site offers striking graphics and audio, challenging games and an extensive teacher's resource area. Become a subscriber and you will receive absolutely free weekly, all-in-one lesson plans and activities filled with meaningful content. All material is based on United States education guidelines for classroom use. Visit www.missmaggie.org and view the debut mission, "A Great Catch," where on a routine scuba diving expedition Miss Maggie's suspicions that fishing practices are far from ideal are confirmed. Check back to view the next module in early February. Earth Day Grocery Bag Project Involve your students in an activity to advance environmental awareness. Students decorate paper grocery bags from a local grocery store the week before Earth Day and return them to the store. The decorated bags are then distributed (filled with groceries) to shoppers on Earth Day. In 1999, nearly 1,200 schools participated, and students decorated almost 400,000 earth day grocery bags! Site will post school data and pictures of students and bags. Amazon Interactive Your students will love the online games and activities about the Amazon and indigenous ecotourism development. While having fun, they will find out how rainy the rainforest actually is, who lives there, and about indigenous agriculture in the rainforest. Site includes the ecotourism game.

Global Learning Networks

GLOBE A network of students and teachers from over 8500 schools in more than 85 countries work with research scientists to study and understand our planet. GLOBE students make environmental observations at or near their schools and report their data through the Internet. Scientists use GLOBE data in their research and provide feedback to the students to enrich their science education. Global images based on student data are displayed on the site, enabling students and other visitors to visualize the students' environmental observations. SchoolWorld This global site allows schools to participate in a wide range of programs and projects, to interact with other schools from around the world, and use the Internet for educational enhancement for free! Registered schools are encouraged to actively involve themselves with other schools throughout the world, either in a direct collaboration or through the SchoolWorld programs. Zoo section includes �Ask an Expert,� links to environmental organizations and zoos, and reports and letters from around the world on SchoolWorld zoo tropics.

* Unless specifically stated, these sites do not endorse EcologyFund.