Waste

Scroll down to Resources for Teachers or Resources for Parents and Guardians to download your free guides today!

Green Calgary has created lesson plans and activities in a variety of subject areas and topics, including waste, recycling, biodiversity, citizen science, energy, stormwater, climate change, and vermicomposting. Activities explore science, math and language arts in nature, as well as art. 

Climatescience.org provides online courses, books for children, powerpoint presentations, and lesson plans! All created and vetted by experts in the field of climate change science.

View projects by youth across Canada and submit your project. 

Fun for all ages, Sort it Right! teaches youth and adults how to sort waste materials into the black, green, or blue bins, as well as household hazardous waste drop-off and landfill throw 'n' go.

The City of Calgary also has a lesson plan to learn about how Calgary's recyclables are sorted, how Calgary's compost is made, and how to prevent food waste.

The Alberta WaterPortal Society has two online learning tools and a teacher guide with learning outcomes and connections to the Alberta curriculum to support educators in using these activities. All of the online resources from the Alberta Water Nexus project focus on how there are complex interconnections between our water resources, agriculture and food, and energy production. By thinking about the connections, we can innovate and improve as a community. 

• Follow the Drop: A choose-your-own-adventure game where users travel as a drop of water through the Bow River watershed. We explore the many different water users and how water quality changes as it goes down the river.
• Video Series: Through six animated videos of 2 minutes each, the viewer gets to explore concepts like how all water users in a watershed are connected, how population growth will increase the demands for food and energy, how farmers protect water quality through practices, and how a healthy environment supports all activities in the water. The videos provide excellent visuals to help students understand the concepts.

Earth School by TedEd is a collection of short videos and lessons organized by the following topics:

• The Nature of Our Stuff
• The Nature of Society
• The Nature of Nature
• The Nature of Change
• The Nature of Individual Action
• The Nature of Collective Action

Trout Unlimited Canada’s award-winning Yellow Fish Road™ program has been Canada’s premier water education program targeted to reduce water pollution. The program educates Canadians that storm drains are the doorways to our rivers, lakes and streams and anything other than rainwater can harm life in and around the water, as well as us as Canadians who need clean water. This science-based, curriculum linked, program links classroom learning to stewardship action, through videos, a presentation activity, program guide and storm drain painting supplies.

Yale Climate Connections has created a list of seven of the best new documentaries on climate change. Read the article for summaries of each documentary. 

The programs help the Okotoks education community address sustainability issues and give students, teachers, administrators, and staff the ideas and resources necessary to take initiative at four levels of action: in the classroom, in the school, in the community, and in the home. The Town of Okotoks offers both field trip opportunities and educational presentations for kids and youth of all ages. From waste management solutions to caring for the Sheep River watershed, kids will learn about their impact on the earth and how to be mindful caregivers of our planet.