Earth Hour is an annual international event designed to raise awareness about global climate change. The campaign encourages governments, businesses, and private citizens to turn off all unnecessary lights for an hour in order to promote conservation of energy resources. They are hoping to get one billion participants from around the globe to create a proactive, rolling blackout to send a message to world leaders that global climate change matters to the world's citizens and to raise awareness about conservation efforts happening year-round.
In 2018, Earth Hour will be held on Saturday, March 24, 8:30-9:30 p.m. local time, all over the world. Thousands of towns across more than 180 countries plan to take part. Science NetLinks offers these resources to help explore the ideas of light pollution, energy conservation, and global climate change in your classroom and beyond.
Filter Resources by Grade:
Lessons
-
K-2 | Hands-On
In this lesson, students will probe the problem of what happens to a battery-operated flashlight when it is not turned off.
-
K-2 | Hands-On
This lesson is the first of a two-part series on technology and inventions
-
3-5 | Hands-On
In this lesson, students distinguish between renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy while comparing the benefits and drawbacks of each.
-
3-5 | Video
This lesson should help students understand both the physical forces behind climate change, and the social responses to it as a means to preserve the health of people, the state of cities, island nations, and organisms.
-
3-5 | Interactive
In this lesson, students compare and contrast different energy sources and the trade-offs of using them.
-
3-5 | Hands-On
This lesson shows that products and objects have lifespans so we need to recycle, reuse, and re-imagine new purposes for them.
-
6-8
In this lesson, students will learn about the sources of the energy that supply their community.
-
6-8 | Video
This lesson provides students with an opportunity to explore the climate change concept in greater depth.
-
6-8 | Audio
The lesson introduces students to the scientific basis of climate change.
-
6-8
In this lesson, students will consider the negative consequences of nighttime lighting, enabled by the invention of electric lights at the close of the 19th century.
-
9-12
In this lesson, students explore how scientific knowledge changes in the context of abrupt climate change.
-
9-12
In this student-centered learning model, students work collaboratively in small teams to design a heat- and water-conserving “green roof” of plant material for an urban apartment building.
-
9-12 | Video
In this lesson, students learn about organism interactions and how those interactions shift in response to climate change, especially in grassland communities.
-
6-8 | Website
In this lesson, students will use Internet resources to investigate renewable sources of energy.
-
9-12
In this lesson, students research and assess past, present, and future decisions related to energy shortages.
Tools
-
6-12 | Website
This resource from PBS takes a look at the differences between alternating currents (AC) and direct currents (DC).
-
6-12 | Video
This 12-minute video produced by AAAS features a number of experts on global climate change talking about its impacts to our planet.
-
K-12 | Teaching Aid
SB&F has put together a list of our top environmental books to help the consumer make informed, eco-friendly choices and to encourage children to take an active role in saving the environment.
-
3-8 | Interactive
This resource provides an introduction to electricity and power plants.
-
K-8 | Video
NASA's climate change site for kids asks and answers important questions relating to climate change as well as providing entertaining career insights, online games, videos, and hands-on activities.
-
3-8 | Interactive
This interactive challenges students to think about the positive and negative consequences of various types of power.
-
9-12 | Video
What We Know is an assessment of current climate science and impacts that emphasizes the need to understand and recognize possible high-risk scenarios.
-
6-12 | Interactive
This interactive allows students to learn about how we use different energy sources and how it affects not only our environment but also our budget.
-
K-12 | Interactive
YardMap is a free, interactive, citizen science mapping project about habitat creation
and low-impact land use.
Science Updates
-
6-12 | Audio
As climate change heats up the world's ecosystems, many species of plants and animals, from songbirds to whales, are leaving their time-tested home ecosystems for uncharted territory. This Science Update looks at how some plants are changing altitude to find a cooler place to live.
-
6-12 | Audio
According to a landmark study in the journal Science, climate change is transforming the world's oceans, at a potentially huge cost. You'll hear more about it in this Science Update.
-
6-12 | Audio
Human activities like farming have contributed some amount of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere for ages
-
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update we learn how researchers are using leftover material—wastewater—as a way to generate electricity.
-
6-12 | Audio
Fish in acidified waters exhibit strange and often reckless behaviors.
-
6-12 | Audio
Learn about a thirty-year plan to replace 70 percent of our fossil fuels, using only current technologies like storable solar power, safer nuclear plants, and methanol from crop waste.
-
6-12 | Audio
As number of households is increasing faster than the human population is growing, it puts a strain on our energy resources.
-
6-12 | Audio
Keeping windows dark might help prevent birds flying into them.
-
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, hear why bright nighttime lights could also be bad for women's health.
-
6-12 | Audio
Deforestation can lead to droughts hundreds of miles away.
-
6-12 | Audio
Sinking old warships creates new habitats for marine species.
-
6-12 | Audio
“Smart” headlights improve visibility by illuminating the road ahead, but not raindrops or snowflakes.
-
6-12 | Audio
Solar power is clean, abundant, and becoming cheaper and more efficient all the time. Unfortunately, however, the sun isn't always there when you need it—like when it's cloudy, or it's raining, or it's nighttime. In this Science Update, you'll hear about an ambitious plan to get around that problem.
-
6-12 | Audio
Fluorescent lights could be used for more than illumination if their flickering patterns turned into code.
-
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, hear how researches are using Henry David Thoreau's plant journals to study climate change.
-
6-12 | Audio
Strategically placed grass, ivy, and other greenery can significantly improve air quality in urban centers.
-
6-12 | Audio
In this Science Update, hear how reducing food waste could translate into big energy savings.
-
6-12 | Audio
This Science Update looks at how Alaska leads the way to a more independent and renewable energy supply.
-
6-12 | Audio
Engineers are designing more efficient cooling systems inspired by physical processes in nature.
Collections
-
K-12
This collection of Science NetLinks lessons and resources will help teachers and students prepare for the celebration of Earth Day.
-
6-12
With support from the Lemelson Foundation, this collection offers an introduction to invention education, with an emphasis on thinking critically about environmental implications.
Other Resources
Earth Hour
Grade Band: 3-12
Description: Earth Hour is an annual international campaign to affect the global policy on climate change. It culminates in an hourlong, rolling worldwide blackout on the fourth Saturday in March.
World Wildlife Fund
Grade Band: K-12
Description: The World Wildlife Fund is an international organization devoted to conservation efforts. It is one of the key sponsors of Earth Hour, and this site offers games and activities to put students into a mindset to think about conservation.
Send us feedback about this Collection >