Earth Month is a time for action and awareness for the environment, especially amongst young people, and every little individual action counts in the journey towards a sustainable future. Many youth today experience eco-anxiety from the uncertainty of climate events. Empowering youth with the knowledge, information and actions to combat climate change helps ease anxiety. As an educator, there is so much you can do to inspire young learners to take action and learn about climate change. This Earth Month, discover how your K-12 students can make an impact to positively affect the environment. Here are some Earth Month activities to explore.
Start an Eco Club at School
Clubs can make learning more fun, exciting, and, most of all, practical. Starting an eco club at your school can inspire your students to create positive change for the environment during Earth Month and all year long. Eco clubs create a great opportunity for students to dive deeper in subjects they love. With GreenLearning's free resources, you can have students engage in Earth Month activities that will inspire students to learn more about the environment and how they can take action to protect it.
Create an Awareness Campaign using eCards
There is no better time to amplify student voices than Earth Month. Have your students share their thoughts and Earth Month message with decision-makers using GreenLearning's eCard tool! Students create artwork and a research message that is important to them with their own words and graphics. Students can create their cards using supplies found around the classroom or create graphics using tools like Canva. GreenLearning will send your students' eCards to their chosen recipients on their behalf. This activity is a perfect way for your students to celebrate Earth Month and teach them valuable research skills. Check out the eCard activity here!
Attend a Green Workshop
Invite GreenLearning Experts into your classroom and explore workshops that your students will love! Having students attend a green workshop can help you save time lesson planning and it can also build excitement amongst your students. During Earth Month, GreenLearning and partners are offering many free student workshops that will inspire your learners to learn more about the environment and discover ways they can protect it. These workshops cover many different topics from understanding our energy use to discovering unique ways to up-cycle plastic
Start an EcoSchool Project and Submit to GreenLearning’s Challenges!
One of the best ways to celebrate earth month is to have your students take part in an eco school project. GreenLearning has five unique challenges that can help turn student learning into action. Learn more about our challenge below.
Eco 360: It allows learners to imagine a world without waste by closing the loop of a product’s life cycle and creating a circular economy. Learners explore the origin of plastics, their use in our daily lives, how they end up in the environment as waste and how we can ensure that plastics are cycled back into the economy after their use and out of the environment to realize their full potential, while protecting our planet. Eco 360 challenges learners to engage in creating a circular economy by exploring innovative solutions for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic waste.
- Flood:ED: As our climate continues to change, the risks of flooding to many communities across Canada will increase. Youth can play a very important role in helping their school communities adapt and thrive in a changing climate. Students will be provided with a practical, hands-on learning experience about flooding, including what they can do to help protect their schools so that they are more flood resilient.
- Re-Energy: In the Re-Energy program, students design and build a working model or prototype of a renewable energy technology. In the process, they are able to test their construction and engineering skills. The Re-Energy Challenge offers students an opportunity to build a wind turbine, solar oven, hydroelectric generator, biogas generator, electric vehicle or energy storage—so they can see firsthand how applied science helps create a more sustainable future.
- Decoding Carbon: This is a unique program with activities to help youth understand the role that students can play in developing their own policies and solutions for a low carbon future. The program will enable students to not only reduce their individual carbon footprint but also empower them to develop innovative policies towards reducing long-term carbon emissions.
- Energy Revealed: The activities in Energy Revealed offer youth an exciting opportunity to understand how energy is being used in their schools, while challenging them to come up with ways to conserve by organizing a School Lights Out event.
If you are thinking of doing GreenLearning’s Challenges as part of your Earth Month activities, then you are in good company! Many schools have participated in the challenges and we have highlighted all their achievements. Take inspiration from past first place winners and discover the impact your students can make.
Somerset Academy students took on the Eco 360 challenge by creating 3 unique invention plans to help reduce the use of plastics and to keep plastics out of the environment. Students used 3D printing to create models of their inventions and presented their learnings and inventions to their entire school!
Three of St. Francis Xavier's Science 30 Classes teamed together to create 24 models of renewable energy! The functioning models included wind turbines, penny batteries, solar power models, and electric cars - which they had some fun with racing them in the hallway. The three Science 30 classes took the opportunity to share their learning and involve their younger Science 20 peers by hosting presentations on their models and providing the Science 20 students the opportunity to interact with the models and reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement - preparing them for next year!
Waterloo Collegiate Institute's Eco Club organized a bigger than ever inter-school Eco Competition! Nearly doubling the participation in their "Turn it Off Thursday" event from last year's event, which challenges students and teachers to turn off all energy consuming technology for one hour. There were nearly 500 students who participated in the at-school Earth Hours, with approximately 400 of those students reporting to have done Earth Hours in their home as well! This jump in participation comes from the Eco Club's efforts by increasing promotion using social media before and during the event, and getting more schools involved. The energy savings from these widespread Earth Hours equates to the greenhouse gas absorption of approximately 120 trees over one year!
Feeling inspired to try some of these Earth Month activities? See how other educators and schools are achieving both student success and environmental impact through our programs. View the impact through our annual report, submissions showcase and follow us on social media or sign-up for our newsletter.
You can also check out our Blog for other Environmental Education Resources and Websites.