A boy and his family endure a difficult nine-week journey across the ocean and survive the first winter at Plymouth. Based on true events, "Across the Wide Dark Sea" poetically narrates a young boy's account of risking the ocean to find religious freedom in a new land.

This video segment from Wild Europe: "Wild Arctic" explores the struggle for survival in one of Earth's most extreme environments.

In small groups, students experiment and observe the similarities and differences between human-made objects and objects from nature. They compare the function and structure of hollow bones with drinking straws, bird beaks, tool pliers, bat wings and airplane wings. Observations are recorded in a compare & contrast chart, and then shared in a classroom discussion, along with follow up assessment activities such as journal writing and Venn diagrams.

The Lost in the Amazon curricular unit is a series of minds-on and hands-on engineering activities based on an adventure scenario set in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Students imagine themselves to be a team of EnviroTech engineers returning to the U.S. from a conference in Brasilia, Brazil. When their plane crashes deep in the Amazon forest, they work in groups to overcome various obstacles in their quest to survive and reach the nearest city as quickly and safely as possible. Motivated by this adventurous theme, students discover, learn and apply the following: 1) classification of plants and insects; 2) general categorizing skills; 3) process skills: problem solving and critical thinking; 4) scientific testing and experimentation; 5) materials properties.

This unit is designed around providing student choice. There will be 5 novels for students to choose from: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Refugee by Alan Gratz, Zeros by Scott Westerfeld, The Martian by Andy Weir, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Each novel focuses on the central theme of survival. Students will read and meet weekly for 8 weeks. Each week the novel groups will be given specific discussion questions and tasks that are aligned with Wisconsin ELA standards and Wisconsin Standards for Environmental Literacy & Sustainability.

At some point, many children wish for a pet animal to play with and care for. But what does it take to keep an animal alive and healthy? In this engaging lesson plan, children will act out adopting a pet and shopping for items based on its needs. As they bring their items together, they will notice that every animal needs food, water, shelter, and air to survive.

Students will have the opportunity to learn about animal signs, including tracks, sounds and coats and how to infer that information through a series of “mystery scenes.” Each mystery scene incorporates a basic biology concept appropriate for early elementary.