Lesson Plan: Protecting Earth

Subject:  Science

Grade: 5

Lesson Objective: To describe different ways to protect Earth’s resources and environment 

Next Gen Science Standard:  5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment

Materials:

• Download and print these articles

Starter:

Say:

• What are some ways people help protect Earth’s resources?  (Allow the students to answer.)

Main:

Say:

• Earth has many different resources that people use on a daily basis.  Air, water and fuel to create electricity are some of them. 
• The environment and many of these resources are affected by agriculture (farming), industry (making different goods) and everyday life.
• How do you think the environment and the resources are affected?  (Allow the students to answer.)
• When people have big farms to grow food to feed large communities, they often cut down trees or other plants to make room for crops to grow.  They can also use the soil too much, which takes all of the nutrients out of it and makes it so the soil is not good for growing anymore.
• When people have factories to make things, those factories often pollute the air or water.  The factories can pollute the air because they use coal or gases to run the machines.  Then, pollution is released into the air.
• Water is often polluted when water that was used in the factories for making goods or for cleaning, is dumped into rivers and lakes.  The polluted water then goes into the water cycle and spreads polluted water around.
• All of the pollution affects the water, land and air.  The air is not clean for people and animals to breathe and they can get sick.  The water is not clean to drink and grow things in.  This can make it so that plants do not grow and people are thirsty.  The land is polluted and will not grow plants, which means that food cannot be grown.
• We know that we need Earth’s resources for many different things.  There are communities that are finding ways to protect the environment and resources.
• You are going to be reading two different articles about that.  (NOTE:  Students can also do their own research to find out how communities are protecting the environment. Here is a great site to check out: Environmental Justice in Your Community
• Then, you are going to write a summary explaining what you have read.
• Does anyone have any questions?

Feedback:

Say:

• Who would like to share the summary that you wrote?  (Allow the students to share.)

Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer

Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.

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