In this investigation, students design and create a Recycling Sorting Machine to eliminate the amount of waste that is incorrectly being sent to landfill. Students use basic resources (recycled and/or reused items in the classroom, home, or their community) to engineer a solution to the growing problem of waste in our schools.

In this investigation, students describe the life cycle of man-made products that include or originate from plastic to evaluate how they may impact the environment. Students use a basic life cycle assessment – similar to assessments used by process engineers – that allows them to identify and order the different steps in the life cycle of a product. Using their analyses to compare the impacts of different products, students develop ideas to reduce the environmental impact of the production process or lifecycle of the product.

Students examine the nature of the problem and work collaboratively to create solutions to the issue of nurdles becoming evermore present in our oceans. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets which are used to make many of the plastics we use every day. Unfortunately, they end up where they are not supposed to and cause a wide range of problems. Nurdle Know-How is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare students to design and build a nurdle capture system to clean up their local bay, harbor, or coastal waters.

In this curricular guide, middle school students learn about an alternative farming technique that addresses water use in agricultural farming, the environmental impacts of fish farms, and urban development and population growth. This guide promotes 21st-century skills by engaging students in the history of aquaponics through various texts; improving their communication skills by explaining how an aquaponics system works; and engineering your own classroom aquaponics unit through an interactive design challenge!

This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation. By creating prototype desalination plants and companies, students in grades 6-8 will understand how substances are separated, the need for freshwater conservation, and ultimately how a desalination plant works.

This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation. Through this lesson, students in grades 6-8 will create a model of an aquifer to understand the structure of aquifers, how aquifers impact our freshwater supply and groundwater in regards to the water cycle.

This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation. In this lesson, students, grades 6-8, will learn about aqueducts through a close reading activity. They are then given different scenarios in an engineering design challenge to create an aqueduct to supply freshwater to their city, despite various obstacles.

Participating in this hands-on lesson, students in grades 6-8 will lead each other through the integration and application of a real-life situation. This lesson provides a PowerPoint and worksheets to help students understand precision agriculture and its use of geographic information systems to help farmers use a sustainable growing method. Students will then integrate their knowledge and skills to create their own mini irrigation system.

Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands provides a close look at our oceans and waterways and our role in protecting this water planet.