In this lesson, students will explore the importance of saving energy and identify ways in which they can do so. They will then create guidelines for energy saving within their classroom.

Students learn about mapping and the value of natural elements within their immediate environment. They design a school ‘secret garden’ to improve environmental awareness and encourage creative play. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students learn about mapping and the value of natural elements within their immediate environment. They work with a partner to create a map of the playground, which others use as a guide in order to find natural ‘treasures’ within the space. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

In this activity students map the water use of their school and home, establishing where water is used or wasted and what quality of water is needed in various points to meet the needs of the water use at that particular point.

Students explore the importance and availability of clean water and the relevance of bottled water to this issue. They work in groups to research the topic using a variety of questions inspired by Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. They then share their findings and ideas with the class as a slide show presentation.

In this activity students become more familiar with some of the technical terms (and meanings) associated with solid waste. Students are asked to research terms and create definitions for these terms that will then be used in a class game. Finally, students are asked to think of a question they would like answered about waste, and to either undertake research to answer this question or swap their question with another student, and research and report back to their classmate the answers they found to the question.

Students draw conclusions about different energy futures. Students explore a range of energy types that could be used as environmentally friendly alternatives to coal.

Students investigate the interconnected relationships within a simplified food web. Students deduce the impact on the food web when components are changed.

During this lesson students reflect on the way they view and use trees, and how nature can be used in poetry to express ideas and convey messages about conservation. They begin by taking a walk around the school yard, then read Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree. As a class they brainstorm verbs, nouns and adjectives from nature, and use these to independently write a Diamond Poem about trees to share with a chosen audience. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students investigate the role and importance of topsoil to food production and biodiversity. They begin exploring the role and importance of topsoil by observing a demonstration that uses an apple to visually demonstrate the parts of the Earth. Students will work in groups to test the quality of topsoil around their school. They then analyse the class data and work in groups to create a map of topsoil quality at their school and to make suggestions for improving topsoil quality. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

In this activity, students are asked to research an animal species that lives in their area. They are to construct a mini Muir web that explains the integration between their chosen animal and other aspects of the natural and human influenced environment. Their diagram will show how this animal fits into its ecosystem, the impacts on the ecosystem, and what might cause it to become extinct.

In this lesson students will explore the way soil and plants contribute to the purification of contaminated water in nature. Students conduct experiments to compare how successful soil and plants are in removing particulates from water by watering plants with contaminated water and assessing the filtered water for turbidity. This activity requires considerable preparation and resources but is simple and effective to run.

Students collect junk mail from home and bring it to the class to conduct a mathematical investigation. Students engage in a range of mathematical investigation around their junk mail, including counting the number of pieces of junk mail collected, weighing the mail, measuring the length and area the mail covers. The class will then make their own ‘no junk mail’ sign to take home. Students will know what junk mail is and why it is used, recognise the environmental impacts of junk mail and know some actions they can take to reduce the negative impacts of junk mail on our environment.  Students will know a range of ways we can use maths to measure real world objects, be able to think critically about junk mail, measure, sort and compare objects mathematically, as well as participate in class discussions and activities.

During this lesson students explore dichotomous keys as a means for identifying and classifying living things. They begin by observing living things in the school yard. Following an introduction to dichotomous keys, students will create a key for living things found in the school yard. Finally, students will use an invertebrates key to identify invertebrates in the school yard and then create a poster/booklet about school mini-beasts. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

In this activity students look at how the climate around the world has changed over time by creating a climate change timeline. Students work in three groups; one groups looks at historical changes to climate; another group looks at predicted future changes; and the third group creates the timeline and a class wide glossary on the topic.

Students are introduced to the topic of energy by analysing research articles and creating a Wordle cloud. Wordle is a free word art tool that crunches any chunk of text and produces a visual representation of the content. The resulting word cloud emphasises the most common words by amplifying their size based on frequency. Students will develop knowledge of subject-specific vocabulary and use this knowledge to create an energy limerick.

In this lesson students explore the concept of biodiversity. They begin by working in groups to conduct research in order to investigate a topic relating to ecosystem diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. Then they work in new groups to create a communication product that explains the importance of biodiversity.

During this lesson students investigate how biodiversity in their school yard will be affected by climate change. They begin by identifying aspects of biodiversity in their school yard, and undertake research to identify the causes and impacts of climate change on biodiversity. Finally, students create an interactive walk through their school yard. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students investigate, estimate, identify and classify shapes in the outdoors. They explore how formulas can be used to calculate area and perimeter and make use of them to calculate these measurements for shapes they have observed. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

During this lesson students investigate the structure of ecosystems, including trophic levels and biotic and abiotic elements. Students begin by refreshing their understanding of key ecosystem terms, and then observe and record the biotic and abiotic features of their school yard ecosystem. They then participate in a group activity around a wetland ecosystem, looking at how this ecosystem responds to various scenarios. This lesson is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, students are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.