www.njctl.org 5th Grade PSI Human Impacts on Earth
Ecological Footprint Activity
5th Grade PSI
Teacher’s Notes:
Experimental Question:
What demand do I place on the Earth?
What can I do to reduce my impact on Earth?
Purpose:
In this activity, you will examine the positive and negative impacts of humans on the
environment and you will calculate your ecological footprint. Finally, you will determine
ways to reduce the size of your own ecological footprint.
Materials:
Graph Paper
Markers or colored pencils
Procedure:
Day 1
Introduction
1. Have students trace their feet on a sheet of graph paper and calculate the area
of their footprint.
2. Lead a class discussion on how humans leave footprints on the Earth and our
environment. Brainstorm ways that humans affect our environment.
3. Explain that our ecological footprint is a measure of our impact on the
environment.
4. Students will list their own activities within their footprint. Encourage students to
have both positive and negative impacts on their footprints.
5. Instruct student to estimate what portion of the footprint is responsible for the
following areas: Water, Transportation, Energy, Food and Garbage.
Activity 1 – How much Earth is there?
1. Ask students to estimate how many people are on the Earth. As of 8/2013 there
were approximately 7.2 billion people (http://www.worldometers.info/world-
population/).
www.njctl.org 5th Grade PSI Human Impacts on Earth
2. Hand out “How much Earth is there?” worksheet. Lead students in figuring out
how much land is available to support each person. Answers below:
29 billion acres
4 acres per person
We currently overshoot Earth’s capacity by 1.8 acres or 45%.
1.44 Earths {(5.8 acres x 7.2 billion people) / 29 billion acres}
1 acre per person
3. Give students the Ecological Footprint Worksheet to complete as homework.
The information collected will be used in the following activities.
Day 2
Activity 2 – Our Ecological Footprints
1. As a class discuss and review the information recorded on the Ecological
Footprint Worksheet.
2. Pass out the Water, Transportation, Energy, Food and Garbage worksheets.
3. Read out the responses for the number of flushes as students record them on
their charts or record them as a class on the board, overhead, computer, etc.
4. Once all the data is recorded have the student answer the questions on the
worksheet. You can choose for them to do this individually or as a group.
5. Repeat this process for the other areas.
6. Lead a class reflection on the data from the 5 areas. Identify trends and
surprises.
Day 3
Day 4: Activity 3 – My Ecoplan
1. Students will select one of the 5 areas they would like to make some
improvements and changes to reduce their ecological footprint.
2. Students may want to calculate their individual ecological footprint. These are a
few websites for students to calculate their footprints:
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
http://www.myfootprint.org/
http://www.earthday.org/footprint-calculator?gclid=CI6qxvqd7rgCFY87MgodunsAkw
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How Much Earth is There? Name: _________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
There are 126 billion acres on Earth. However, 97 billion acres are covered by non-productive oceans, deserts, ice caps and human settlement. There are also 29 billion acres of productive oceans. How many acres are left to support the human population? _____________________________ There are 7.2 billion people on Earth. How many acres per person are available? _____________________________ On average, each human consumes 5.8 acres annually. By how much do humans overshoot Earth’s carrying capacity? List this as a number and as a percent. _____________________________ ____________________________ If every human consumes 5.8 acres annually, how many Earth are needed to support
the population?
_____________________________ Humans are only one species on Earth. If we left 75% of the planet wild for the other 25 million species present, how many acres per person would be available? _____________________________
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Ecological Footprint Worksheet Name: _________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Water
Record the number of times you flush the toilet in one day.
______________________________________________________________________
Transportation
How do you get to school and how many miles is it?
Mode of Transportation: __________________________________________________
Miles of Trip: ___________________________________________________________
Energy
Record on the chart how many hours you used the following items. If there is an item
you used that was not listed add it in the blank spaces.
Device Hours Used
Television
Video Games
Cell Phone
Computer
MP3 Player/Radio
Food
Record what you ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
How many servings of the following did you eat?
Food Servings
Meat
Grains
Fruits/Vegetables
Dairy
Other:
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Garbage
Most things we eat come in a package, list items from your meal above that came in
packages.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Fill in the chart below. Record the number of items that you threw away, recycled or
reused.
Threw Away Recycled Re-used
Plastic
Glass
Metal
Paper
Food
Other
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Ecological Footprint Reflection – Water Name: _________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Complete the chart below with how many times your class flushed the toilet.
# of
flushes
# of students
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1. What was the average number of flushes for your class?
___________________________________________________________________
2. The average toilet uses 3.6 gallons per flush. Using the class average of flushes,
how many gallons of water were used by your class yesterday?
___________________________________________________________________
3. An average sized swimming pool can hold 30,000 gallons, what percentage of
the pool did your class fill?
___________________________________________________________________
4. If all the toilets used the new standard of 1.6 gallons per flush how many gallons
of water would be conserved?
___________________________________________________________________
5. What other sources of water did you use yesterday?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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6. Why should we be concerned with saving water?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
7. What are some of the places/items that use water where you might be able to
conserve water?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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Ecological Footprint Reflection – Transportation Name: ______________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Complete the chart below with how your class gets to school, distance traveled and the
average length of trip.
Form of Transportation # of students Miles of Trip Average Trip
Walk
Bike
Bus
Public Transportation
Car
Other
Complete the chart analyzing each form of transportation
Environmental Impact
Energy Source/Fuel
Type
Rate of
Travel
Cost to Operate
Impact on the Land
Benefits
Walking
Bike
Bus
Public Transit
Car
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1. What was the most common mode of transportation used to get to school?
___________________________________________________________________
2. What was the least common mode of transportation used to get to school?
___________________________________________________________________
3. Which mode of transportation had the furthest trip to get to school?
___________________________________________________________________
4. Which mode of transportation had the biggest impact on the Earth? Why?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
5. Which mode of transportation had the smallest impact on the Earth? Why?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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Ecological Footprint Reflection – Energy Name ___________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Complete the chart below of which entertainment devices your class used.
Device # of students
who used
Hours Used
Television
Video Games
Cell Phone
Computer
MP3 Player/Radio
1. What device did the class use the most?
___________________________________________________________________
2. Other than entertainment, how else is energy used in your daily life?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. How does your use of entertainment devices impact your environmental
footprint? What resources are used?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
4. What can you do to conserve energy to reduce your environmental footprint?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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Ecological Footprint Reflection – Food Name ________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Complete the chart below with how many servings of food the students in your class
ate.
Food # of Servings
Meat
Grains
Fruits/Vegetables
Dairy
Other:
Other:
Other:
1. Which food group do you think created the largest ecological impact? Explain
your answer.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. What types of food were in the other category? How do these foods impact your
footprint?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. What are some ways that you could reduce your food footprint?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
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Ecological Footprint Reflection – Garbage Name ___________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
Record the number of items that your class threw away, recycled or reused.
Threw Away Recycled Re-used
Plastic
Glass
Metal
Paper
Food
Other
1. What items were thrown away the most? What percentage of the total garbage was
thrown away?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. What percentage of garbage was recycled? What percentage of garbage was
reused?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. How could you reduce your garbage footprint?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
www.njctl.org 5th Grade PSI Human Impacts on Earth
My Ecoplan Name ________________________________
5th Grade PSI Science
1. What are your thoughts about the size of your ecological footprint?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. What area of your footprint would you like to see change? Why?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. What are 5 ways that you could do to make a positive change to your footprint?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. Pick one of your ideas and describe how it would help reduce your ecological
footprint.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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