Groundwater is one of the largest sources of drinking water, so environmental engineers need to understand groundwater flow in order to tap into this important resource. Environmental engineers also study groundwater to predict where pollution from the surface may end up. In this lesson, students will learn how water flows through the ground, what an aquifer is and what soil properties are used to predict groundwater flow.

This is an Environmental Humanities podcast centred post secondary curriculum on environmental health and environmental justice. Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology was used, meaning the author's own story is included in this story based content. Each module - which can be stand alone for use in a variety of disciplines - or as a sequence - features a unique podcast and essay, along with Instructors' Guides, Learning Outcomes, Key Concepts, Curated Materials (Explorations) and Quizzes.

In this video segment from Louisville Life, high school students in Louisville, Kentucky describe the benefits of creating rain gardens as a solution to non-point source water pollution.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Children in daycare centers are exposed to various bacteria and fungi. Exposure to certain indoor fungi can lead to adverse health effects, but the extent to which the fungal community, or mycobiome, affects children in daycares remains unclear. To learn more, a recent study investigated the indoor mycobiomes of two daycare centers in Norway over the course of a year. DNA metabarcoding of dust samples from the daycares revealed that less-used rooms had fungal communities similar to the outdoor mycobiome, which were markedly different from the communities in the main rooms. The less-used rooms tended to have more Basidiomycota species. while the main rooms had more Ascomycota species. The indoor mycobiome composition was also strongly affected by the outdoor climate, exhibiting clear seasonality..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This gallery of online resources is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Video Gallery: Man Bites Shark, part of the Sharks and Rays: Myth and Reality seminar, features three videos: Man Bites Shark I, which looks at the reasons sharks are threatened by people. Man Bites Shark II, which looks at Tampa Bay and how contamination from human development is affecting sharks. Man Bites Shark III, which looks at the role of sharks as a sentinel species, alerting us early on to problems within a habitat.

Students observe and discuss a simple model of a wet scrubber to understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, explores the water-energy connection through the topic of greenhouse gas emissions.

Whatever method we use to get a drink, we don't have to consider the environmental and water quality engineering underlying clean water. Living in the industrialized world, like the United States, we are fortunate - we don't have to worry about the quality of our drinking water. But in many parts of the world, people don't have this luxury. The focus in this six-week curriculum unit is for primary-grade scientists to build an appreciation for the outdoors, impart an understanding of how many people in the world struggle to find clean water, and empower them to solve a problem. Students will spend time learning new concepts and experiencing laboratory and field demonstrations as they move through this curriculum unit on environmental engineering and specifically, water filtration.

The curriculum unit begins with the primary mentor texts, The River Ran Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry and The Water Princess by Susan Verde. Classroom activities include learning about water treatment and access, experience carrying water, engineer a working water filter, field trips to the pond, and connecting with an area in need of easier access to clean water.

Water is a natural resource that is vital for human survival and health, although only a tiny fraction of the Earth's supply is available to humans and terrestrial animals. In this unit we look at threats, such as pollution, to water's capacity to support life around the world.

This course examines the policy and planning for the provision of water supply and sanitation services in developing countries. It reviews available technologies, but emphasizes the planning and policy process, including economic, social, environmental, and health issues. The course incorporates considerations of financing, pricing, institutional structure, consumer demand, and community participation in the planning process. And it evaluates policies and projects in case studies from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

The 11 books selected for inclusion in the issue of Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle devoted to climate studies range from easy readers to biographies. Each book is briefly described; all were reviewed for accuracy and appropriate reading levels for students in grades K-5. Several books deal with careers in meteorology.

Students are introduced to some essential meteorology concepts so they more fully understand the impact of meteorological activity on air pollution control and prevention. First, they develop an understanding of the magnitude and importance of air pressure. Next, they build a simple aneroid barometer to understand how air pressure information is related to weather prediction. Then, students explore the concept of relative humidity and its connection to weather prediction. Finally, students learn about air convection currents and temperature inversions. In an associated literacy activity, students learn how scientific terms are formed using Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes, and are introduced to the role played by metaphor in language development. Note: Some of these activities can be conducted simultaneously with the air quality activity (What Color Is Your Air Today?) of Air Pollution unit, Lesson 1.

Students develop awareness and understanding of the daily air quality using the Air Quality Index (AQI) listed in the newspaper. They explore what engineers can do to help reduce poor air quality.

In this scenario-based activity, students design ways to either clean a water source or find a new water source, depending on given hypothetical family scenarios. They act as engineers to draw and write about what they could do to provide water to a community facing a water crisis. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process.

Students determine their carbon footprints by answering questions about their everyday lifestyle choices. Then they engineer plans to reduce them. Students learn about their personal impacts on global climate change and how they can help the environment.

A box model is used to simulate the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the industrial era and predict the future increase in atmospheric CO2 levels during the next century.

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Students are introduced to the concepts of air pollution and air quality. The three lesson parts focus on the prerequisites for understanding air pollution. First, students use M&Ms to create a pie graph that expresses their understanding of the composition of air. Next, students watch and conduct several simple experiments to develop an understanding of the properties of air (it has mass, it takes up space, it can move, it exerts pressure, it can do work). Finally, students develop awareness and understanding of the daily air quality using the Air Quality Index (AQI) listed in the newspaper. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the environmental history timeline.

Students learn about physical models of groundwater and how environmental engineers determine possible sites for drinking water wells. During the activity, students create their own groundwater well models using coffee cans and wire screening. They add red food coloring to their models to see how pollutants can migrate through the groundwater into a drinking water resource.

In this activity, students use models to investigate the process and consequences of water contamination on the land, groundwater, and plants. This is a good introduction to building water filters found in the associated activity, The Dirty Water Project.

Students develop an understanding of the effects of invisible air pollutants with a rubber band and hanger air test and a bean plant experiment. They also learn about methods of reducing invisible air pollutants.