Teaching kids about environmental science lends several teaching topics, including water quality, air pollution, the food chain, the human impact on the environment, erosion, resource management, habitat requirements and animal adaptations. Teaching environmental science lessons can also help educate students about environmental issues occurring in the setting of your community, giving kids greater buy-in and showing them the relevance of being a good steward of the environment.

Oh Deer
As one of the most well known experiential environmental science lessons, teachers can use this game to teach students about the requirements for sustainable habitat and the role of carrying capacity in determining how many animals can survive in one location before their resources are depleted. Have your class stand in a straight line at the end of a small field or roped-off area. Select three or four students to stand at the other end of the field, acting as habitat components: food, water and shelter. Turn both groups around so their backs are facing each other and tell them to make symbols with their hands on their bellies for food, hands to mouths for water and hands over head for shelter. The first group of students, the deer, then walk across the field to claim a matching habitat resource. The resource then becomes a deer for the next round. Deers that don't acquire resources die off and become resources themselves. Additionally, you can use a white board to chart the changing number of deer throughout different years to demonstrate the concept of carrying capacity.

Water Quality
Performing a water quality test will teach kids the importance of protecting our freshwater resources from pollution while allowing them to play in the water and search for different types of macroinvertebrates. Use screens and fishnets to filter out silt from a stream, and have kids lift up rocks to search for snails, crawfish and other types of macroinvertebrates. Use a chart from the Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Worksheet to discover the stream's water quality while teaching the kids the difference between animals that can and can't tolerate pollution in the water. Also use the opportunity to teach about different sources of pollution for waterways including sediment, erosion and chemical runoff.

Adaptations
As one of the keys to understanding the specialization and unique characteristics of each animal, discussing adaptations of common animals can help kids learn about why animals are different from one another. Part of your class time might be dedicated to watching a video of an anteater or discussing pictures that show adaptations of animals such as deer, which have long legs for running and leaping through the forests, or birds, which have wings and hollow bones to fly.

Water Use
One of the most relevant issues facing the planet's population is the limits of freshwater resources. A lesson may involve having your kids make a list of all the things that water is used for and then another list of ways in which water is wasted. As part of your lesson, you may choose to emphasize the amount of freshwater resources we have by filling a 5-gallon bucket with 3 gallons of water from a nearby creek or pond. If the entire earth was represented by the bucket, the 3 gallons of water represents the amount of water on the earth. Measure out 500 millimeters, about a half quart, which roughly represents how much of the earth's water is actually freshwater.