Earth Day 2018 Ideas (tech and non tech)!

Earth Day is on Sunday, April 22, 2018!  Have you thought about what you and your students can do to make this an exciting event?  As a former high school science teacher, I always used to come up with activities that my students could participate in that would bring awareness to the importance of taking care of our earth, not just for us, but for generations to come!  Consider making your classroom paperless (if it's not already) for the week of Earth Day 2018!  Using FREE tools like Google Classroom, Twitter, YouTube, Microsoft, and Flipgrid (to name a few) to deliver your content and have students create AMAZING products that allow them to do things like raise awareness, start conversations, change minds and drive change (for example) will make a HUGE difference in the way that you teach and the way that they learn!  

I LOVE this graphic that I found on social media a few years ago and I STILL see floating around the Twitter-sphere.  I have no idea where it came from originally, although I wish I did so I could give credit to the creator!  I did not create it and can't take credit for it, however all these years later, it's STILL extremely relevant!  

Keep in mind that technology is NEVER the b all and end all about what we do as educators in our classrooms!  Technology is simply the tool to deliver the content to the students AND for students to to create products that do those things you see on the right hand side of the graphic above!

So, Earth Day is all about raising awareness about the way that we treat our precious earth!  I wanted to share some tech and non-tech options for Earth Day activities.  Some of the things that you can do with your students are here:

• Have students take Earth Day quizzes:  https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-quiz/
• Have students calculate their Ecological Footprint:  https://www.earthday.org/take-action/footprint-calculator/   

• Have students create their own memes about what the earth might have said in the year 1900 versus in the year 2018!  Here's a template you can use here:  https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1H4EtDSyScuOG7cT-kPkAzhUgSehAN-pANjxC5EA63QU/copy
• Have students create a poster via Google Drawings about saving the earth and have them post them around the school.
• Have students sign a "Digital Pledge" to pledge to make a difference for the week of Earth Day.  Here's an example:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gr6x8S1_95kQB3GScvGQkWwctc5rxo1faEYdm9YpgsA/copy

• Here are a TON of Earth Day activities found on TeacherVision:  https://www.teachervision.com/holidays/earth-day
• Have students create their own YouTube videos (maybe using green screen) about why taking care of the earth is important.
• Students can create their own interactive Sways  (www.sway.com) about the importance of saving our earth. 
• What would Earth Day be without The Lorax by Dr. Seuss? I would show The Lorax to my class every year on Earth Day! We would even create Truffela Trees...YES, in HIGH SCHOOL! Here's a link to some resources and activities surrounding one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books/movies:  http://www.seussville.com/loraxproject/

• There are some great resources on the My Garbology site that allow kids to understand which items should be recycled, composted, reused and put into a landfill:  http://www.naturebridge.org/garbology.php
• Flipgrid is a NO BRAINER to use for Earth Day and will allow for your kids to verbalize their pledges to make the earth a better place! There are OVER 2,000 educator created topics about Earth Day waiting for you to check out!

 Flipgrid is FREE, but if you are interested in exploring the FULL classroom version FREE for 45 days, you can use the code: RACHELL to check it out!

So there you go!  A few Earth Day activities to get you going!  This is JUST the top of the iceberg!  What will you be doing with your students surrounding Earth Day?  Let us know!