The Council offers free lesson plans on topics related to our mission. The K-12 lesson plans are used by classroom teachers, homeschool parents, and informal educators. Our lessons are selected for hands-on learning and local relevance.

Search our lesson bank

About our free lesson plans

Students surround a large, shallow plastic bin. One end of the bin has rocks and soil to simulate shoreline. The bin is half full of water and vegetable oil mixed with dark food coloring floats on top of the water simulating an oil spill. The students attempt to gather the spill using a miniature version of oil spill boom and clean it out of the water using eye droppers to simulate oil skimmers.
University students learning from the Oil Spill in a Pan lesson.

The lessons start with foundational science and ecosystem concepts for the younger ages and increase in complexity for older students. The lesson bank is made up of classroom lessons, outdoor lessons, field trips, experiments, and games. Subjects include:

  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environmental Science
  • Chemistry
  • Social Science & History
  • Writing
  • Art
  • Advocacy & Government
  • Conservation & Stewardship
  • Math

In 2020, lessons were updated to meet applicable Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). (Comparing NGSS with Alaska State Science Standards) Lessons cover:

  • All seven Crosscutting Concepts
  • All four domains of the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)
  • All grade levels

Search our lesson bank

Comparing NGSS with Alaska State Science Standards

Alaskan teachers can use the NGSS for their lesson planning with minimal adjustments.

The Science Standards for Alaska are largely the same as the NGSS. The state strongly supports the general architecture and approach of the NGSS, and made no changes to the scientific content. The state standards include:

Examples of how the standards could be made more relevant for students in Alaska by showing applications of scientific principles and skills in an Alaskan context

  • Rephrasing several content standards statements to make them clearer and/or more age-appropriate
  • Fewer than a handful of NGSS content standards were combined, moved to a different grade, or deleted.

More information: Alaska Standards (PDF)

The Performance Expectation numbering system of the NGSS and Alaska Standards are the same, for example 2-PS1-2 means the same thing in both systems. Educators looking to use NGSS-aligned lessons in Alaska can search the Alaska Standards for the same Performance Expectation. If a Performance Expectation from the NGSS is not included in the Alaska Standards, it may be possible to find that theme addressed combined in another standard or moved to a different grade.

Skip to content