Curriculum Resources & Materials

In this lesson, students are introduced to the importance of agriculture in Arizona and the factors that influence what crops are grown and the resources involved (water). Students participate in activities and discussions related to choices and factors that must be considered from both an economic and environmental perspective related to land use and agriculture. 

This lesson explores the concept of resilience in several biotic organisms in a desert ecosystem. Lesson activities including creating lists of resilience strategies, many of which have long been practices of Native American communities, for human resilience facing water scarcity in arid ecosystems.

Developed by UNESCO. Taking climate change education outside the science classroom into the many other subject areas which climate change impacts now or in the future, such as ethics, social studies, economics, political science.

The core science behind climate change. Analyze geoscience data that describes how changes in the Earth's surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems. Evaluate a technological solution reducing impacts of human activities. Use global models to make a climate change forecast.

Students will analyze data to recognize drought conditions and participate in group discussions on the causes and signs of droughts. Students will create an informative and illustrative model presentation that identifies the different types of droughts and drought conditions that may exist in their local area using science vocabulary, claims, evidence, and reasoning.

Three-week extension course for high school social studies classrooms, focused on climate education, policy, and student action. Inspiring students how they can help from a social and civic perspective.
Students learn where emissions come from and discover ways to get to net zero. They develop policies, action plans, or career aspirations to enact locally.

This lesson introduces students to the long and rich history of agriculture and food gathering in the Sonoran desert practiced by Indigenous peoples in the Southwestern US. The activities and content include traditional food cultivation practices, plant science, relationships between various plants, and human-nature relationships. Students will read several writings on nature and plants by Indigenous authors and compare traditional ways of understanding plant relationships to Western science constructs.

This lesson introduces students to the idea of biological adaptation and explains how plants adapt to a desert environment. Students will get to create their own imaginary plant that is adapted to the desert.

In this lesson students explore a range of STEM careers by watching video interviews on the SBAR YouTube channel. Students learn about a variety of careers and the problems those careers are helping solve.

This curriculum was created based on a survey of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU). It includes: water quality and testing, sustainability planning, climate modeling and change impacts, and green power.