Educational Resources

Keep Mesquite Beautiful’s mission to educate and engage people to care for the environment doesn’t stop when students aren’t in school. So we’ve compiled this list of educational activities, lessons and games to share. Each topic is broken down into appropriate age levels.

Litter Prevention

All Ages

K-12: Don’t Mess with Texas Art Contest: Keep Texas Beautiful’s annual calendar art contest is underway with artwork due by April 24th. Details online at https://ktb.org/artcontest.

Report-A-Litterer App: Don’t Mess with Texas’s Report-a-Litterer app can be downloaded from your phone on apple or android. Students and adults can download this app and catch litterers in action.

For information about TX-DOT's Adopt-A-Highway program, visit their website at Tx-DOT Adopt-A-Highway Program

Elementary

Anti-litter topics in English and Spanish: https://www.helpstoplitterbugs.com/activities-for-kids

Middle School

Ocean gyres: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/mar18/nop14-ocean-garbage-patches.html

NatGeo’s Ocean gyres: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup: https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/

High School

Don’t Mess with Texas Scholarship

The Don’t mess with Texas® Scholarship recognizes the achievements of high school seniors who have taken a leadership role to prevent litter in their schools and/or communities. Any Texas high school senior currently attending public, private or home school, and planning to pursue a two- or four-year degree at an accredited college or university next year, is eligible to apply.

The 2020 Don’t mess with Texas® Scholarship is presented in partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful. One $5,000 Grand Prize scholarship, one $4,000 scholarship and one $3,000 scholarship will be awarded this June 18, 2020. Thank you to the 2020 scholarship sponsors: Buc-ee’s, iHeart Media and the Astros Foundation. To apply for the Don’t mess with TexasScholarship, visit http://www.dontmesswithtexas.org/education-overview/scholarships/.

Applications must be received by online submission by 5 p.m. (CST) May 29, 2020.

Keep America Beautiful littering articles and fact sheets on the bottom of this page: https://kab.org/goals/end-littering/

Topics Germane to Public Health

Teaching Kids about Germs: https://www.clorox.com/our-purpose/our-causes/classroom-resources/

Webquest about Infectious Diseases: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/teacher-resources/webquests/infectious-disease

Webquest for Extreme Events: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/teacher-resources/webquests/extreme-event-disaster-resilience

The Extreme Event Game: https://labx.org/extreme-event/

Virtual Field Trips for Middle and High School Students for Infectious Diseases: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/teacher-resources/virtual-field-trips

For Teachers

Our friends at the City of Plano have developed online learning modules for a variety of environmental education thanks in part to a grant funded from the NCTCOG including Freddy the Fish for elementary students at https://www.plano.gov/1472/Online-Learning-Modules

Online Education Resources from NEA: http://www.nea.org/tools/EnvironmentalEducationActivitiesAndResources.html

Online Webquests from Koshland Science Museum: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/teacher-resources/webquests

Ollie’s World Teacher Education Resources: https://www.olliesworld.com/news/news_new-ollie-eductor-resources.htm

National Institutes for Health Environmental Health Resources: https://kids.niehs.nih.gov/topics/environment-health/index.htm

Building an Air Particulate Sensor Kit with Students: https://www.epa.gov/air-research/air-quality-and-energy-choice-stem-activities-educators

Earth911 Quizzes: https://earth911.com/category/quiz/

Project Learning Tree: https://www.plt.org/curriculum/environmental-education-activity-guide/

For teachers of pre-k students: National Institutes for Health: https://kids.niehs.nih.gov/little-kids/

Butterflies

Curricula for K-12: http://www.nea.org/tools/butterfiles-free-learning-resources.html

Keep Mesquite Beautiful’s Butterfly Habitat at Paschall Park is a certified Monarch waystation by MonarchWatch and is a certified butterfly habitat by Texas Discovery Gardens. You can find our more about these initiatives at the following websites:

Monarch Watch: MonarchWatch’s Website contains a variety of educational materials about the monarch life cycle, migration and conservation https://monarchwatch.org/

Texas Discovery Gardens: Texas Discovery Gardens’ website has resources for local classes and information about how to plant a butterfly garden at your own home or school. https://txdg.org/

Climate Change

Elementary and Middle School Students

Climate Change Activities: https://climatekids.nasa.gov/

Middle and High School Students

Online Climate Change Mitigation Simulator: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/sites/all/exhibits/mitigationsim/index.html

Resilient Jigsaw Puzzle: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/extreme-event/puzzle/

How Do Climate Models Work?: https://www.koshland-science-museum.org/explore-the-science/interactives/how-do-climate-models-work

Recycling

Elementary

ABCYA’s online recycling game: https://www.abcya.com/games/recycling_game

Recycle City: https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/

Middle School/Junior High