Environmental science
A quick guide to some of our best resources for teaching and learning environmental science and environmental history.
Key resources
- Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations

- Virtual field trips to areas characterized by both beautiful scenery and useful lessons about North Carolina’s environment. Each trip explores an important feature of North Carolina’s natural heritage. The field trips also examine how humans impact and are in turn impacted by these natural areas. With high-resolution photographs, narrative text, and glossaries, these virtual field trips offer an experience that’s the next best thing to exploring our state on foot with a scientist at your side!
- Hurricane Floyd

- In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd brought unprecedented floods to eastern North Carolina. Primary sources, background readings, and scientific data examine the causes, impacts, and legacies — both scientific and personal — of this natural disaster.
- Inquiry-based exploration of human impacts on stream ecosystems: The Mud Creek case study

- A unit study of stream health, in which students compare urban and natural streams using chemical, biological, and physical metrics. Includes instructions for field work as well as sample data and instructions for a classroom-only unit and video demonstrations of laboratory techniques.
Additional resources
Lesson plans
LEARN NC has more than 150 lesson plans for the high school Earth & Environmental Science course from North Carolina educators and trusted partners.
Best practices
More general approaches to teaching environmental science at all grade levels, using inquiry approaches.
Environmental history
Primary sources and background readings from our digital textbook for North Carolina history about the changes humans have brought to the region’s environment and their efforts to protect it.
Field trips
More than a hundred North Carolina field trip opportunities on environmental science and environmental education.
- Browse field trip opportunities or search for field trips near your school
On the web
Our Instructify blog keeps you up to date on the latest in technology and education.
- Environmental education resources from Instructify






