EL6.1: Assess personal, societal, economic, and environmental impacts of…

Earth Day Investigations: Make Your School Better Grades 4–6

Four hands-on investigations into the school's own garbage, shade, water and electricity. Each one ends with students taking a real, evidence-based recommendation to the principal or caretaker.

• What's in our garbage? 50–60 min

  Teams wear gloves to sort one day of classroom waste into landfill, recycling and compost, weigh each pile and graph the results. They use the numbers to recommend one change to the principal or caretaker.

• Where would a new tree help most? 50–60 min

  Teams measure air and ground temperature in sun and shade, on grass and on pavement, to see how much shade cools the schoolyard. They use their numbers to recommend where the school should plant a new tree.

• How much water does a dripping tap waste? 45–60 min

  The class counts drips per minute from a slow-dripping tap, catches and measures the water, then scales it up to a day and a year. Students use the math to recommend how the school should report and fix drips.

• Is our classroom wasting electricity? 45–60 min

  Students audit their classroom's lights and devices, check which are left on when nobody needs them, and read wattage labels to estimate the energy wasted in a school year. They finish with a poster or letter recommending one easy change.

Power Up: Where Electricity Comes From Grade 6

Where does the electricity in our classroom come from, and why is it made differently in different places? Students trace the wires, build a wind machine that does real work, and weigh up solar power like an energy planner.

• Where does our classroom's electricity come from? 50–60 min

  Students trace the classroom light switch back to a power plant, then look up the real mix of energy sources for their own province or state and turn it into a 100-square chart. They explain why different places make electricity in different ways.

• Can the wind power our school? 55–65 min

  Teams build a paper wind machine that winds up a string and lifts paper clips, then test one change to the blades to see which design does the most work. They use their results to explain what a real wind farm needs.

• Why don't we use solar power everywhere? 50–60 min

  Students shine a flashlight onto grid paper at different angles and through 'clouds' to see why sunlight is weaker in winter, then compare day lengths for their own town. They weigh solar power's strengths and limits like an energy planner.

Printable practice for EL6.1

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to EL6.1 is partial.

• Earth Day Investigations: Make Your School Better workbook included with the unit

  2 readings, 1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Power Up: Where Electricity Comes From workbook included with the unit

  3 practice pages, 3 readings, 2 English-support pages, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

• Our Changing Planet: Resources and Human Impact workbook included with the unit

  1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.

Need just this outcome? Build a custom pack from these pages, with its answer key, in about a minute. Custom packs come with All-access and school licences.