In ten or twenty years, the students studying sustainability, climate change, and wildlife in your classroom will be environmental stewards. They will soon hold the key to our planet’s future. You’re also having a significant influence on our future as a teacher by engaging them in environmental activities for high school students.
Our fundamental aim is to support teachers and promote sustainability, and we are here to help. Some of the most remarkable environmental activities for students and strategies to support the environment in your classroom have been compiled by educators from across the United States who provide all of the printable worksheets, digital activities, and other educational materials on the Teach Starter website.
Read on for some essential ideas to add to your teaching toolkit, whether you’re preparing sustainability lessons for your science class, commemorating Earth Day, or simply trying to find methods to emphasise the value of treating Mother Earth with kindness in the classroom.
Table of Contents
Environmental Activities for High School Students
Teaching students about environmental protection has become essential at a time when the environment is facing significant challenges. The following list of imaginative and significant activities can be used by educational institutions to help students develop a love of the natural world and a sense of duty to preserve it.
- Environmental Protection Festival
- Organizing Competitions
- Environmental Debate
- Presentation
- Green Living Club
- Plastic Waste Reduction Campaign
- Tree Planting
- Outdoor Learning Sessions
- Participating in Community Projects
- Art and Writing Competitions
- Film Screenings and Discussions
- Green Living Skills Courses
- Promoting Green Transportation
- Determine Your Carbon Footprint
- Tally Trips
- Access the Wisdom of Local Community
- Visit the Local Recycling Center
- Upcycle a Garden
- Recording the Rainforest
- Coastline Erosion Protection
- Biomimicry: Water Security
- Finding Your Flow: Watersheds
1. Environmental Protection Festival
Arranging festivals regularly that include a range of events like photo exhibits, talks, and workshops about pollution and environmentally friendly solutions. To express their creativity and sense of community, students take part in educational activities and art contests.
2. Organizing Competitions
Schools might hold recycling-related competitions on important occasions to encourage students’ creativity and help them form recycling-related learning habits that will lessen their influence on the environment.
Old-item exchanges, recycled fashion displays, recycled goods fairs, and the creation of recycled lanterns are a few examples.
3. Environmental Debate
Assign students to investigate a proposed or passed policy in their state senate or city council that tackles a contemporary environmental concern in their neighbourhood, either in class or as a homework assignment. Students will next be asked to discuss the policy’s (expected) efficacy.
What You Need:
- Availability of a library or additional research resources
- A few “starter” facts about an environmental policy for students
What to Do:
- Form two groups out of the students. Assign two groups to make arguments for and against the policy.
- Give the two debate groups 20 to 30 minutes to come up with ideas for their stances and rebuttals. Allow the students to select two members from their teams to speak in front of the class.
- Each side will have 90 seconds to present their position over the five rounds of the discussion. Give counterarguments for 60 seconds. A new piece of evidence to support their stance should be the main emphasis of each round.
- You will determine which party presented the stronger case. On the subsequent test or quiz, the more persuasive group will receive five more points.
4. Presentation
Give your students ten minutes to deliver an article about environmental issues from a local news source. Natural disasters, unusual weather patterns, protected animal habitats, pest control, air and water pollution, agriculture and farming, commercial land use, or environmental justice for low-income or communities of colour are just a few examples. The presentation must address the following questions:
- What is the main concern?
- What are the various viewpoints on the issue?
- How does this issue affect the community?
- What can be done to address this concern?
- How does this issue help or hinder your understanding of your local community, the state, or the nation?
- Why is your topic important on Earth Day?
- Can you start a club for students who are enthusiastic about environmental protection?
5. Green Living Club
Create a club just for students who are enthusiastic about protecting the environment. The group can organise events like tree planting, waste cleanups, and involvement in neighbourhood awareness initiatives.
6. Plastic Waste Reduction Campaign
Motivate students to contribute to the school’s efforts to reduce plastic waste. The plan talks about the negative impacts of plastic and encourages people to embrace eco-friendly alternatives like cloth bags and reusable water bottles.
7. Tree Planting
Plan tree-planting events for public spaces as well as the school’s grounds. By caring for the trees themselves, students may better comprehend the vital function that trees serve in enhancing the ecosystem and air quality.
8. Outdoor Learning Sessions
Classes outside might alter the learning environment. Students who have direct access to nature are better able to understand its beauty and the value of preserving their environment.
9. Participating in Community Projects
Urge students to participate in neighbourhood environmental preservation initiatives, like workshops on community awareness or beach or street clean-ups. Students have the opportunity to put their expertise and knowledge to use in practical settings through these activities.
10. Art and Writing Competitions
Create artistic contests that involve writing or drawing regarding environmental preservation. These competitions foster creativity while giving students a platform to voice their thoughts and opinions on environmental challenges.
11. Film Screenings and Discussions
Play documentaries about climate change and the environment. After the screening, have conversations where students can express their feelings, ideas, and opinions about the topics covered.
12. Green Living Skills Courses
Offer classes on sustainable living that cover everything from using recycled materials to conserving water and electricity. The habits that students acquire will be simple to incorporate into their everyday routines.
13. Promoting Green Transportation
Urge students to take public transportation, walk, or cycle as environmentally friendly forms of transportation. To inspire students, plan events like “Walk to School” or “Safe Cycling.”
Through these activities, students can develop a love of nature and a sense of responsibility while also increasing their understanding of environmental conservation. Every student may help create a more environmentally friendly future for the coming generation by taking tiny steps!
14. Determine Your Carbon Footprint
Students can use a carbon footprint calculator to estimate how much carbon their lifestyle emits annually. Both the EPA and 8 Billion Trees calculators are free, but they do require some rather precise information from parents. They might lower their carbon footprint by making some minor lifestyle adjustments, according to the calculators.
- The numerical data generated by the quiz answers can be recorded, compiled, and compared by your class.
- Plotting data for individuals, small groups, or classes in a table or graph is possible for students. Determine the class’s average carbon footprint and establish a target to cut it to a specific level by the end of the academic year. To reduce the class’s carbon footprint, ask students to consider the lifestyle modifications that were recommended to them in their results and decide which one they will adopt.
15. Tally Trips
For a few days or a week, ask the students to keep a journal of their travels, including visits to and from school, the grocery store, and any other locations they visit.
They might record the following kinds of information for every journey:
- Mode of transportation—did they walk? Take a bus? Take a car ride?
- The number of passengers
- The approximate distance of the trip
- Potential alternate forms of transportation (could they have carpooled with other classmates?).
After that, students can compile, analyse, and contrast their data as well as data from small and large groups. Discuss the implications of the findings for attitudes and understanding regarding sustainability once they have been presented in visual forms such as tables, column graphs, or picture graphs.
16. Access the Wisdom of Local Community
A great method to learn more about the issues that are most important to your community is to get in touch with a local organisation. Additionally, it gives your students a more practical understanding of the sustainability concepts you have been covering in class.
- Reach out to a local environmental organisation via Facebook or email. Alternatively, you could just pick up the phone and call them!
- Ask a member of the neighbourhood to visit your class and discuss their efforts in sustainability.
17. Visit the Local Recycling Center
Searching for a fresh field trip concept that will have a significant influence on students’ futures without breaking the bank? See if there is a recycling facility in your area that provides educational opportunities. Even a field trip to the nearby landfill could be a valuable and affordable experience.
18. Upcycle a Garden
A garden made from repurposed materials can benefit the environment in two ways.
What You Need:
- A garden area at the school;
- Plant-holding items like tyres, pails, milk jugs, and even old shoes;
- Soil;
- Seeds or baby plants;
- Gardening equipment
- Fertiliser and bricks for landscaping or an elevated planter are optional
What to Do:
- Look for an area outside the school where a garden could be planted.
- Assign the class to investigate plants that would thrive in your growing zone and that area. Students should choose materials that will enable them to expand vertically if space is limited.
Safety Tip: If students choose to grow edible plants, divide your garden into two portions. In a raised garden, recycled materials should only be utilised for blooming plants that are not edible.
- Collect extra potting soil, plants, and seeds, and repurpose anything that can accommodate plants.
- Get the garden planted.
Safety Tip: Before engaging in outdoor activities, make sure to speak with families. When working with plants and dirt, have students wear gloves. When oil is not bought from a garden centre, it may contain fungi, bacteria, and other creatures that might trigger allergic reactions. Wash your hands after working in the garden at all times.
1. Throughout the academic year, assign students to tend to and water the garden. Pruning, fertilising, watering, and weeding are all part of maintenance.
2. Throughout the year, include the garden in your science and math classes.
19. Recording the Rainforest
Students will investigate an intriguing subject in this lesson: How can we use science and acoustic technology to preserve the environment and save the flora and fauna in one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth?
20. Coastline Erosion Protection
Coastlines can be protected in a variety of ways. In this lesson, students contrast the less resilient (but less costly) oyster reefs with sturdy (but costly) building materials. Students investigate the use of various materials in defending coasts and locate historical tide data in a chosen coastal region using an online tool.
21. Biomimicry: Water Security
In this lesson, students trace the flow of water from a rural Colombian region to Bogotá, the country’s capital, to discover a unique ecosystem located far above the city that allows Bogotá to have pure water all year round. These plants will serve as an inspiration for the biomimicry projects that the students are working on.
22. Finding Your Flow: Watersheds
As a starting point, students will watch a movie about Colombian water to learn about the problems affecting their local watershed and how they can help protect it as it travels around the country.
Conslusion
Having seen a lot of activities, environmental stewards, which are the students can do I can tell you that there are still other activities not listed here you can adopt.
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A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo.
I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems.
It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.