Earth Day 2011 is the 41st anniversary of Earth day. Way back in 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin watched closely at the state of the coast in Santa Barbara California due to the massive oil spill in 1969. As he watched the damage caused by this oil spill he was inspired to take action. At the time, no one was really concerned with the environment and green was just a color, not a movement. He used the students that were protesting the war to mobilize 20 million people to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums. 20 million people came together to form coast to coast rallies to raise awareness of the detiorating environment of the planet. With the rallies, political parties worked together to form the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air, Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
In 1990, environmental leaders appealed to Denis Hayes (Earth Day 1970's National Coordinator) to organize another large event. This time there was a global initiative bringing together 200 million people in 141 countries to bring light to the environment. This is when green became much more than just a color. Recycling took off with all lines of people and the ground work was set to begin the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio De Janiero in 1992. President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Senator Nelson in 1995 for his act in founding Earth Day.
First we have
The STEM Blog with a great listing of activities for classrooms to do in celebration of Earth Day.
NASA has a great form that talks about scale models of the Earth and Moon using play dough. All you need is a 3 lb. tub of play dough and an inquisitive nature.
No Time for Flash Cards has a great activity that they did with kids using blue and green play doh to make a model of the planet Earth.
Almost Unschoolers did a great experiment to find out about oil spills and how they use dish washing liquid to clean off the birds and other animals affected by the oil.
Be sure to get out there and do something with the kids to show them that Green is important.
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