How to Raise Environmentally Responsible Kids

Grades PreK-3
Talking with your child about the environment and ways to help take care of our planet can help your child establish eco-friendly habits that make a difference!

Gaylord Nelson: A Vision for the Earth | Wisconsin Biographies

Grades 3-8
In this PBS Wisconsin Education resource, learn how Gaylord Nelson had an idea for a day focused on the environment. That idea would become the internationally recognized annual event Earth Day. Born and raised in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, Nelson went on to become a state senator, governor of Wisconsin, and a United States senator. All along the way, he made the environment a priority by protecting natural resources through advocacy, policies, and inspiring greater awareness of the need to care for the earth.

Earth Day: A View from Above | STEM in 30

Grades 3-8
The people of Earth didn’t see a photo of our planet until the late 1960s. Photos of Earth changed the way we think about our planet. In this webcast we look at the beginnings of Earth Day and how a better understanding of our place in the universe has evolved through photographic discoveries.

Renewable Energy: Clean Tech Solutions | Exploring Energy

Grades 6-12
Renewable energy sources count on the fact that there will always be water, wind, waves, and sunshine to gather energy. Learn what kinds of renewable energy technologies are out there and how we can store the energy they produce.

Lake Champlain Basin Program 

The Lake Champlain Basin Program coordinates and funds efforts that benefit the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation, and cultural resources, in partnership with government agencies, private organizations, local communities, and individuals. Check out their online education resources, watch the Diving In video series to learn about how citizens are helping protect water quality and habitat in the Lake Champlain Basin, and visit their Kid’s Page for more fun activities and videos!

The Wild Center

The Wild Center is a natural history center in Tupper Lake, New York, near the center of New York state’s Adirondack Park. The experiences, exhibits and programs at The Wild Center are designed to open new ways to look into the latest discoveries made by natural scientists and their educational programming serves to engage learners of all ages in an exploration of the natural world. For online experiences, check out a variety of Wild Center Digital resources including Nature Lab video series and activities, and the opportunity to become a certified Wild Center Jr. Naturalist!

AdkAction

AdkAction’s mission is to create innovative projects that address unmet needs, promote vibrant communities, and preserve the natural beauty of the Adirondacks for all. Get involved with some of their initiatives like The Adirondack Pollinator Project, which helps promote the health of pollinators in our ecosystem and provides resources to become a pollinator advocate, and the Adirondack Compost for Good program, helping our communities turn food and other organic “wastes” into high quality compost.

Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center

The Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center is dedicated to fostering connections with nature for students, local residents, and regional visitors by providing outdoor recreation opportunities, experiential education programs, and year-round art exhibitions. Discover their Breck Chapin Memorial Native Species Butterfly House to learn more about these colorful insects and explore the PSC VIC trails – open year round!

Monday,April 18

1 PM: NATURE: American Arctic

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has long protected survivors of the Ice Age, but this frozen fortress is melting due to climate change. For the caribou, musk oxen, polar bears and Arctic foxes, the Ice Age is slipping away.

• Program website
• PBS LearningMedia: Gwich’in Tribe Protects Caribou and Culture

2 PM: The Great Polar Bear Feast

Every year, up to eighty polar bears gather on the frozen shores of Barter Island, near the village of Kaktovik, to feast on the hunter-harvested bowhead whale remains. This extraordinary gathering is not only highly unusual, it turns dangerous as the whale bones are picked bare, and the huge group of polar bears heads for the town.

• Program page
• Learning resource: Polar Bear Fact Sheet | NATURE

Thursday,April 21

1 PM: The Resilient Ones: A Generation Takes on Climate Change

Go on a journey with a group of high school students seeking solutions to climate change. The Resilient Ones: A Generation Takes on Climate Change invites you along to meet with the local leaders and expert innovators as these students work to make a difference in the Adirondack mountains of Northern NY.

• Program website
• PBS LearningMedia: Understanding Air: Climate Change and Modeling Combustion with LEGO® Bricks

2 PM: Uninvited: The Spread of Invasive Species

Uninvited: The Spread of Invasive Species is an exciting and informative film by Westfield Production Company. The documentary introduces the concept of invasive species and highlights some of the species threatening New York’s environment and economy, while also showing some innovative ways that New York State is combatting these threats. Uninvited features the collaborative work of DEC and its partners including NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets, the eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISMs), New York State Invasive Species Research Institute (NYISRI), and more.

• Program website
• Learning resource: Invasive Species: K-12 Educator Resources | NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

Monday,April 25

1 PM: Changing Planet

Every year over seven years, conservationist M. Sanjayan anchors a global storytelling effort to monitor seven iconic locations across the planet. Featuring the latest science and emphasizing local voices, each location represents a unique biome and a litmus test for change happening across the planet. Some locations are heavily protected; others will experience pioneering schemes to rebuild the habitats; others could be lost forever. There are winners and losers, positive changes and reasons for hope. Locations include the West Coast of America, the Great Barrier Reef, the East African Plains, the Arctic, the Sundarbans and the Ganges, the Amazon Basin, and coastal Southeast Asia.

• PBS LearningMedia: Biomes Interactive Resource

Wednesday,April 27

1 PM: A Wild Idea: The Birth of the APA

New York’s Adirondack Park is larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Canyon, and Great Smokies National Parks combined. It is one of the largest unbroken deciduous forests on earth. It has a thousand of miles of streams and rivers, hundreds of lakes, and lofty peaks. Even more amazing, most of the land within the park is privately owned, and 85 million people live within a day’s drive. Yet the Adirondacks seem entirely undeveloped. How did that happen? The founding of the Adirondack Park Agency, 50 years ago, was truly, A Wild Idea.

• Program website
• Learning resource: Regulation and Resistance: Adirondack Activism in the Early Years of the APA – Virtual Exhibition | Adirondack Experience

2 PM: Earth Emergency

This revealing film examines how human activity is setting off dangerous warming loops that are pushing the climate to a point of no return – and what we need to do to stop them. With captivating illustrations, stunning footage and interviews with leading climate scientists as well as support from Greta Thunberg and Jane Fonda, “Earth Emergency” adds the missing piece of the climate puzzle.

• Program page
• PBS LearningMedia: What Is a Feedback Loop? | Interactive Lesson