Thirty-five years ago, I was in 10^th grade helping clean up an illegal dump for the first Earth Day. It was just a couple weeks after my birthday, my 15^th, but to me, it was more exciting to be a part of something much bigger than my 15^th birthday. My 16^th birthday, the next year, when Id get my license, well, Earth Day would be have to take the backseat!

No matter what grade youre in, weve got a Challenge here on EdWorld At Home that will be good for you.

You might talk to a teacher about it and get credit in school for doing this. Or a teacher might want to do this with a whole class. If so, credit yourself with having something fun to do about Earth Day.

Heres how this works.

For the Challenge, to play at Level 1, just print out a scorecard and write down your answers. Use a clock or watch even a stopwatch, if you want to be exact to time how fast you can do each Challenge.

To play at Level 2, you also answer the level 2 questions on your scorecard. Remember not to close the Web page youre using until you have both your Level 1 and Level 2 answers!

To play at Level 3, do levels 1 and 2 and then answer the Level 3 question at the bottom of the scorecard.

Challenge: A Tour of Earths Biggest Issues

1. .On https://www2.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/pollution-main.html, find the three examples of noxious gases that form part of the issue with air pollution.

Level Two: Can you find two additional facts about air pollution, from other sources on our What Is the Most Serious Problem Earth Faces page?

2. On https://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/fish/rhooksum.asp, what is said to be the most immediate threat to fish populations?

Level Two: Can you find a good definition online of the food chain?

3. On http://web.archive.org/web/20040227133904/http://www.kab.org/trashfacts.cfm, in the table, what is the material that accounts for the biggest weight of our trash, and what percentage of our trash does it account for?

Level Two: Choose the idea from Garbage: How can my community reduce waste? that you think is most important. Write down one fact related to that idea.

4. On http://www.rainforestweb.org/Rainforest_Information/, pick one of the top information topics and follow its link to learn a fact you will write down here.

Level Two: Go to https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids and learn something about how the rainforest fits into the global environment.

5. On https://defenders.org/publications, find an endangered animal you want to read about and write down one important fact here about that animal.

Level Two: Read about one animal from each of the 8 regions listed on https://defenders.org/publications -- North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and the Arctic and Antarctic. Write down the most interesting fact you find from all of this reading here!

6. From the page http://www.earth911.org/PcXSM/master.asp?s=lib&a=Water/water.asp, find out the answer to this question: What percentage of the worlds water is salty or otherwise undrinkable?

Level Two: Add another fact about a particular water problem, like acid rain, from a page such as https://www.epa.gov/students.

Level Three:

Now that you know all these facts about some of the major issues facing the Earth, pick three facts you feel are important and write how they are related.

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