Earth Day is a worldwide event celebrated annually on April 22 and established nearly fifty years ago in response to a series of environmental disasters.
An estimated 20 million Americans participated in that first ever Earth Day back in 1970. PBS LearningMedia (California) has created a Celebrate Earth Day website to provide teachers and students with a forum to learn more about the history of Earth Day, the history of the environmental justice movement since then, the racial implications of pollution and waste disposal, and the role of new technologies in conservation efforts.
The PBS Learning Media Celebrate Earth Day Website
The website consists of many great resources - videos, articles and lesson plans - all of which I recently presented to my US History students.
After spending a full period exploring the website, I am certain that students everywhere will find the below resources interesting and informative. Mine certainly did.
Suggested grade levels: Each of these resources is ideal for grades 6-12. They helped me set the stage for the writing project that I assigned to my 11th graders the day after they had spent an entire period exploring the website.
The Writing Assignment This writing assignment first required my students to take into account the following:
The writing assignment then called upon my students to write a 750-1000-word article describing either (1) an act that sought to protect, conserve, or preserve the environment; or (2) an act that sought to educate the public about some aspect of the environment.
For additional writing assignment requirements, including a list of possible titles, a scoring rubric, and some words encouraging students to include in their article links to relevant Youtube.com video clips and/or images found online, click here.
Here are some direct links to articles my students have produced:
From each of these articles, I learned a great deal. After you have read one or more, I suspect you too will have learned much.
Four Important Reasons Why I Teach About Earth Day
There are many reasons why I teach about Earth Day and the actions that various Americans have been taking to protect the environment – and why it’s so important to continue the environmental education.
I’m thankful to PBS for providing me with the resources needed to better educate my students about Earth Day and the related environmental movement.
Peter Paccone is a San Marino High School social studies teacher and the KQED In the Classroom coordinating editor. He is also a Flipped Learning, iCivics, Flipgrid, Poll Everywhere, and KQED Ambassador and a PBS Digital Innovator. He writes frequently for several education-related online publications and he speaks often at various teacher conferences. His goal for the 2018-2019 is to give a keynote.
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