Teachers use several strategies at the end of the school year. One strategy is to try to cram in as many topics as possible in an effort to “cover” everything.  Other teachers use culminating or capstone projects to integrate concepts and give students a chance to use what they’ve learned in science (and other subjects). Environmental investigations are a natural for these projects. The projects described in this issue highlight the students’ research questions and how they share the results of their authentic investigations:
The “Green” Root Beer Laboratory demonstrates an activity to promote environmental awareness in the classroom along with questions about consumerism, recycling, advertising, sources of food products, and nutrition. And it results in a useful product!
Investigating Aquatic Dead Zones incorporates concepts from chemistry and physics in a water study. SciLinks has additional information and suggestions in the collection of links for Ocean Pollution.
I went to a session at the 2008 NSTA conference in Boston by the authors of The Urban Green Tree Project. I was impressed then by the potential for this project, and it was interesting to see what this “looks like” in a real school.

After digging out of 30+ inches of snow here in the Northeast The CORALS Connection looks like a tropical topic. SciLinks has more resources on Coral Reefs. Current maps of snow depths or other weather conditions show that on February 14, every state in the continental US had some snow cover!!).
Many of these projects, including the field ecology course described in Meet Us Outside! could be implemented as a supplemental summer term project, too.  All of these authors provide suggestions for how (and why) to incorporate these investigations into a busy schedule. The projects described in this issue are authentic inquiry/research projects related to environmental topics. You may also be interested in activities in the February issue of Science and Children, in which younger students investigate local watersheds and soils.
Encyclopedia of Earth may look like a blog or wiki, but according to the article in this issue, it’s a peer-reviewed work based at Boston University and operated in partnership with the National Council for Science and the Environment with articles written by reputable authors. Many articles have been individually added to SciLinks, but the entire, searchable site is a valuable resource.
If you’re reading this, you already know about blogs. Create a Classroom Blog looks at blogs as way of sharing and interacting among students, using an authentic technology tool. For example, in a class I observed, the teacher created a blog for students to add their reflections, comments, summaries, or conclusions about their projects and investigations. The students could read what others posted, and the teacher could add comments right to the document. The article has suggestions for sites to host blogs at no cost. Unfortunately, blogs are blocked in some schools. I’m curious about that: Shouldn’t the teacher have a say in what resources are (or are not) available to them?
Regardless of the grade level you teach, bookmark the NSTA Portal: Safety in the Science Classroom with lists for secondary and elementary schools. Many of these resources are also in SciLinks topic Safety in the Science Classroom. Check out the  Connections for this issue. Even if the article does not quite fit with your lesson agenda, the authors provide handouts, background information sheets, data sheets, rubrics, or examples of student work that may give you some ideas. And NSTA Recommends has more resources related to climate change and “teaching green.”