Teacher Resources

Below are some collections of general Earth Science related professional literature or links to useful online sources (including classroom lessons and labs).   Resources specifically related to Astronomy, Geology, Meteorology, and Oceanography can be found on those corresponding web pages, under the Resources tab above.  Resources to help you answer Why Earth Science? can be found on that corresponding web page, also under the Resources tab above.

1.   Earth Science Literacy Principles:  The Earth Science Literacy Principles Guide (see our Why Earth Science? webpage) mentions nine big Earth Science ideas.  The AGI has compiled numerous activities to go along with each of the nine big Earth Science ideas.  You can access these ideas at:

https://www.earthsciweek.org/big-ideas

2.   Earth Science Week:  This website not only includes information about the special week in October set aside to highlight Earth Science education, but it also provides a number of teaching resources for educators and students.

http://www.earthsciweek.org

3.   American Meteorological Society (AMS) Education Programs:  This website describes many education resources for teaching about meteorology, climate science, and oceanography.  This includes very inexpensive online courses, summer programs for teachers, kits, and other resources.

https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/education-careers/education-program/

4.   Certified American Meteorological Society (AMS) Teacher Program:  The American Meteorological Society has established a formal certification to recognize and support teachers actively engaged in raising Earth Science literacy.  Details can be found at this website.

https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/education-careers/careers/ams-professional-certification-programs/certified-ams-teacher-program-cat/

5.   POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning):  A student-centered, group-learning instructional strategy and philosophy now has Earth and Space Science activities available that are correlated to NGSS.

https://www.flinnsci.com/pogil-activities-for-earth--space-science---designed-to-support-the-ngss/ap10094/

6.  SERC K12 Resources: Provides hundreds of activities sorted by grade level and topic.

https://serc.carleton.edu/k12/index.html

7.    Michigan Center for Sustainable Resources:  The University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) has researched and compiled a collection of outside resources, that K-12 educators can use to supplement some of the key sustainability topics.

https://css.umich.edu/page/sustainability-resources-teachers

8.  Earthrise (monthly e-newsletter):  Earthrise leverages NASA’s digital community of practice for educators, and a broad network of learners associated with NASA’s federal partners, to provide K-12 educators and learners with a focused, monthly collection of Earth and climate science resources from across the federal enterprise.  Educators are invited to register for this monthly engagement that will continue through the remainder of 2024.

https://www.nasa.gov/stem-content/earthrise/