• Building Homes of Our Own...
  US Department of Energy
  CD free to middle school educators of 100 students or more
  
  
• Straw Structures...Pitsco
  
  
• Clean Air Lessons ...Clean Air Campaign
  
  
• Crunch the Numbers...US Department of Energy
  
  
• Solid Waste Management Plan...PBS
  
  
• Build an Ecological City...
  Windstar EARTHcamp curriculum
  Objective: Use recyclable items such as food trays, egg cartons, cardboard, and Styrofoam to build an ecologically sound city.
  The city must contain life-sustaining areas such as a water
  source and green space. Housing and food sources should
  be included. Students need to make sure that any factories
  or pollutants are not placed too close to the water source.
  They must also allow for travel space and parking.
  Materials: Students should bring anything that they would
  normally throw away or recycle. Packaging is great because
  it comes in so many different shapes and textures. You'll need
  an old box for each team. (The boxes from a case of soda
  cans work great.)Use clay for the base, or glue and tape.
  Activity: Ask the students to follow this structure...Use an
  old card board box with the sides cut off leaving one or two
  inches all around as the border. Flatten some clay inside
  as the base to stand up items. Roads and rivers can be
  painted or made of old string or poster board. Begin building
  a city. Be creative...just watch for conflicts such as a golf
  course next to a stream. (Fertilizer pollution) Have the
  students figure out more efficient ways to deal with fast food
  drive-up restaurants and parking dilemmas. After the cities
  are built, they can share their ideas with the rest of the group.
  
  
• Living Lightly on the Land...
  Windstar EARTHcamp curriculum
  Objective: Students will learn that people can live lightly
  on the land and in harmony with neighbors, wildlife, and
  development. They will see, through a team effort, that
  point and non-point sources of pollution can be controlled.
  Materials: One long strip of butcher paper or blank newsprint.
  It should be long enough to cut a section for each camper to
  draw his or her home or business, markers, tape
  Preparation:
  · Roll out your newsprint and draw a river down the middle
  of the sheet lengthwise.
  · Draw a light line down the middle of the river and then divide
  the paper with light pencil lines into enough sections for each
  student to have one.
  · You may want to number the sections so that "ones" go
  back together and so on.
  · Cut the paper apart.
  · Each student will have one section of paper with a part
  of a river on it.
  Activity:
  · Explain that their piece of paper represents a piece of
  land that they own. They now have the chance to "build"
  whatever they would like on their land. The drawings may
  represent commercial or residential property. Try not to
  influence them to draw anything in particular. You want to
  have a variety of structures such as homes, businesses,
  golf courses, parks, fast food restaurants, etc.
  · Allow them enough time to complete the drawings.
  · When finished, take turns sharing aloud what they put on
  their property.
  · Now, tape the paper back together and point out the variety
  of structures that wound up next to each other and along
  the same river.
  · Ask if any of these places would cause more pollution
  than others, and what kind of pollution.
  · Talk about what each person can do to live lightly on the
  land and along the river.
  · Examples: Fast food trash could wind up anywhere, but
  is easily taken care of because you know the point from
  which it came. Golf courses and homeowners all contribute
  to water pollution because of fertilizers. This is non-point
  pollution and is harder to find the source. It would take a
  team effort or county ordinance to control that. All things
  are possible when the community works together.

Additional Educator Resources

School Surveys
Middle School Building
Energy Survey

High School Building
Energy Survey

Books
How to Build Your Own Earthship:
by Michael Reynolds

Websites
Green Pages

Static Electricity House PSA..
Alliance to Save Energy

Healthy Planet

What is an Earthship?...
DayCreek

Green Building Resources for Schools...
Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance

Articles
Be It Ever So Humble...
Wired News

Great Straw Walls of China...
Wired News

Journal Topic 

Connect the story in John Denver's song, It's a Possibility, to a true experience of your own. Describe the similarities and differences. What possibilities came out of your experience that might inspire others to take make wise choices?

Student Self-Evaluation

1. This speaker emphasized…
2. One fact that surprised me was…
3. I will always remember…
4. The important message I would like to pass on is…

Teacher Evaluation

1. The student used the journal question as a reflection after the program.
2. The student was able to answer the self-evaluation questions.
3. The student created a model structure using recycled materials which represents an ecologically sustainable city.
4. In Living Lightly on the land, the student worked with his team to model healthy choices when given the freedom to     choose what is on his property.