Environmental Science Projects for Earth Day

Earth Day is a great time to teach your class about the environment and the many ways your students can help the planet. While there are many worthwhile lessons that relate to Earth Day such as recycling, conservation, and more, showing students why these things are important is even better than telling them. The following list of environmental science projects for Earth Day demonstrates an important lesson about conserving our Earth's resources. Through doing one of these Earth Day science experiments, students can gain a better awareness of environmental issues and what they can do to help.

What Kind of Trash Bag Breaks Down Fastest?
Trash in landfills is a huge topic in environmental science. We tell students all of the time to reduce, reuse, and recycle to cut down on waste, but this experiment will show them why it's so important. In this project, your students will create a mini landfill with common trash and find out just what happens to garbage bags when they're thrown away. By testing various trash bags, students can learn how to better dispose of waste and keep harmful materials out of landfills.
Note: This project takes 8 weeks and should be conducted outside.

Recycling Newspaper
Most teachers talk about recycling in lessons on helping the environment. In this experiment, students will actually "recycle" newspaper to see how the process works. While this is a simplified version of how paper is actually recycled, students will be able to experience how paper is broken down and made into new paper. The experiment is simple to do indoors, and can easily be completed in a class period.

Make a Biodome
A biodome is essentially a miniature ecosystem, usually made in a large bottle or jar. There are all sorts of variations on this experiment, but it's a great way to show just how all of the elements of the earth are connected. The water that's in the soil evaporates to the top of the dome and "rains" down again, causing the plants inside to grow. Not only does this teach students about the life cycle of plants, it shows just how pollution in groundwater affects the environment, and why it's so important to dispose of harmful toxins properly.

Water Purification Experiment
This simple experiment shows students how they can harvest the power of the sun to produce clean water. While it's an easy experiment to conduct, it is useful for any unit or lesson on pollution, clean water, or solar energy. It will take a few days in a sunny window, but students can see how to turn polluted water into clean water.

Water Usage Experiment
Part of Earth Day is recognizing what people can do in their everyday lives to help the planet. In this experiment, students will track their water usage for one week to find out just how much of this resource they really use. Once the data is collected, students can work individually to in groups to find ways to reduce their water usage. By tracking what they're already doing in their daily routine, students can see the effects of conservation in a very tangible way.

Solar Hot Dog Cooker
While this experiment sounds complicated, it's really quite simple, using only a cardboard box, tinfoil, and poster board. Students will construct a simple mechanism to cook a hot dog using the power of the sun. Not only is this a fun experiment for kids, it's a great way to introduce students to the concept of solar energy in a very tangible way. This project will show students how solar energy works and can fuel discussions of other ways we can use the power of the sun to save resources.