Teaching Resources
Teaching environmental issues in your classroom is a critical component of providing your students a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience. Discover a wealth Chesapeake Bay related books, multimedia, curriculum guides, individual lesson plans and online data sources.
Begin by choosing the criteria for your search. It is only necessary to include the criteria you wish to use to limit your search. The more specific your search the more focused and narrow the results.
If you know of a great teaching resource that is not included in the Bay Backpack please let us know by suggesting a resource.
Subject
All Subjects- Art
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Technology
Level
- All Levels
- Early Learning
- Elementary School
- Middle School
- High School
Type
Alignment
Keywords
- All Keywords
- acid rain
- adaptation
- agriculture
- air pollution and fossil fuels
- aquatic grass SAV
- beaver
- biodiversity
- blue crab
- boats, canoes and kayaks
- climate change
- culture and watermen
- development
- dissolved oxygen
- economics
- ecosystem and biomes
- erosion
- experiments and investigations
- fish
- food web
- forest
- geocaching (GIS/GPS)
- green development
- habitat and niche
- identification
- invasive species
- John Smith and colonial times
- land use
- litter, trash and recycling
- Native American
- nitrogen and carbon cycle
- non-point source
- orienteering
- oyster
- photosynthesis
- point source
- pollution
- population growth
- predator prey relationships
- renewable resource
- restoration
- salinity
- schoolyard habitat
- sediment, soil and rocks
- smart growth
- stormwater
- stream study
- student action
- transportation
- water and energy conservation
- water cycle and movement
- water quality
- water testing
- watershed
- weather
- wetland
- wildlife
How to Grow a School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers
In this groundbreaking resource, two school garden pioneers offer parents, teachers, and school administrators everything they need to know to build school gardens and to develop the programs that support them.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Books and Publications
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Keywords:
agriculture, schoolyard habitat, student action
Chesapeake Bay FieldScope Website
Explore National Geographic's interactive online map of the Chesapeake Bay. Learn about land use by exploring real-time data and interactive map layers.
Subject(s):
Science, Social Studies, Technology
Type(s):
Multimedia, Data
Level(s):
High School
Keywords:
pollution, population growth, wetland, land use, watershed, agriculture, development, ecosystem and biomes, forest, water quality, water testing
Pennsylvania Land Choices - An Educational Guide
Pennsylvania Land Choices is a national recognized award winning educational program developed by the DCNR State Parks to provide professional development for teachers, conservation and community leaders to understand the role of the citizen and local communities in making decisions that benefit conservation and sustainable community character. The program connects social studies and science in the 6 – 12 grades through place-based service learning, conservation and local government. The activities provide inquiry-based opportunities and hand-on activities that encourage service learning for the benefit of students and their community. Lessons are aligned to the Pennsylvania state academic standards and feature SAS protocols.
Subject(s):
Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide, Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School, High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Pennsylvania
Keywords:
nitrogen and carbon cycle, pollution, non-point source, water cycle and movement, population growth, wetland, land use, watershed, agriculture, development, stormwater, air pollution and fossil fuels, water and energy conservation, erosion, green development, transportation, water quality, wildlife, economics, student action
Earth: Apple of our Eye Lesson
A demonstration of worldwide land distribution -- the instructor slices an apple to represent land used for farming.
Subject(s):
Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide
Level(s):
Elementary School
Keywords:
land use, agriculture
The Story of a River Lesson
This activity provides an excellent introduction to the issues relating to water quality and river management. It introduces the inter‑connections within a watershed and some of the causes of water pollution by observing the impact of pollution on a simulated catchment.
Subject(s):
Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School, High School
Keywords:
pollution, point source, non-point source, land use, watershed, agriculture, stormwater, air pollution and fossil fuels, experiments and investigations, stream study, water quality, water testing
Who Polluted the Potomac?
Through an interactive story lesson, students learn how our rivers have been affected by our growing population.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School
Keywords:
pollution, point source, non-point source, land use, agriculture, development, stormwater, litter, trash and recycling, stream study, water quality
Gateways to Conservation Curriculum Guide (Grades 1-5)
Pickering Creek published this guide with the help of the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay Gateways. Explore 183 pages full of hands-on learning activities and background information to help students and teachers explore the outdoors in conjunction with a nearby nature center, while gaining an understanding of their relationship with the Chesapeake Bay.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide
Level(s):
Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland
Keywords:
pollution, water cycle and movement, wetland, land use, food web, watershed, agriculture, water and energy conservation, ecosystem and biomes, erosion, experiments and investigations, forest, habitat and niche, litter, trash and recycling, renewable resource, schoolyard habitat, stream study, water quality, water testing, wildlife, student action
Maryland Environmental Education ToolKit
This Environmental Education Toolkit provides grade-specific resources for PreK-8 teachers. The toolkit links you to lessons connected to Maryland State Standards. Topics cover a wide range of environmental subjects.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Curriculum Guide
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School, Middle School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland
Keywords:
pollution, water cycle and movement, climate change, population growth, wetland, land use, food web, watershed, agriculture, development, biodiversity, culture and watermen, ecosystem and biomes, experiments and investigations, habitat and niche, renewable resource, water quality, wildlife
Putting Land to Work Lesson
Using the National Geographic Maryland Smart Growth Map, students will learn how forests and farmland is converted in to residential developments and the impact this type of land use has on the environment.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Maryland
Keywords:
land use, agriculture, development, smart growth
Food and You Lesson
This lesson helps students understand how the food they eat can create waste and how humans generate waste. Students will be able to compare the resources going into different foods and analyze which foods are more sustainable, or environmentally friendly.
Subject(s):
Mathematics, Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Early Learning, Elementary School, Middle School
Keywords:
agriculture
Film Canister Farming Activity
Experiment with water, temperature, and light to see what makes a seed come out of its shell.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Keywords:
agriculture, experiments and investigations
Where Did All the Soil Go? An Agricultural Investigation
In this activity, your students will explore the impact of erosion on farm productivity and the health of local waterways through a plant-growing experiment. You will conduct an experiment to test how soil types affect a plant's ability to grow.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Middle School, High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
National Science Education
Keywords:
agriculture, erosion, experiments and investigations, sediment, soil and rocks
Where has all the topsoil gone lesson
Students will investigate changes caused by water flowing over soil. Students study sediment load of local water sources, devise and conduct experiments to test the effect of Best Management Practices on erosion control.
Subject(s):
Science, Technology
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
High School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
agriculture, erosion, sediment, soil and rocks, water quality
Decision Making - A Mock Town Meeting on a Proposed Tank Farm Activity
Your class will represent all of the citizens of Priceford. A major corporation wants permission to build a tank farm just outside of the town and both sides must be heard at a town meeting in your class.
Subject(s):
Science
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
High School
Keywords:
pollution, agriculture, water quality
Changes in Virginia Farming Lesson
Students will learn the difference between colonial and modern farming practices in Virginia. They will look at data on farming income, harvesting dates and crop types.
Subject(s):
Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Type(s):
Lessons and Activities
Level(s):
Elementary School
Aligned with the following standard(s):
Virginia
Keywords:
agriculture, culture and watermen, erosion
