Earth and Human Activity Readers and Passages

Earth Day is coming! Get ready to learn about pollution and test your knowledge. Click for a free reading passage and qu...

Heat domes pose significant health risks as our bodies struggle to maintain a safe temperature in extreme heat. Dehydrat...

Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates move, causing the ground to shake. Understanding earthquakes helps us prepare and...

Volcanoes can erupt with lava and ash, changing the landscape. While dangerous, they also create fertile land and new la...

This passage educates children about human contributions to climate change. It explains how burning fossil fuels for ene...

The global food crisis is a pressing issue caused by climate change, conflict, and population growth. Rising temperature...

Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, forming carbonic acid and lowering the ocean's pH....

Plastic pollution is a major threat to oceans and marine life. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter the oceans yearly...

Deforestation is the large-scale removal of forests, primarily caused by human activities like agriculture, logging, and...

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive collection of plastic waste in the North Pacific Ocean. It harms marine lif...

Surface water runoff replenishes rivers and lakes but can cause flooding and pollution. Solutions like rain gardens and ...

Rare earth minerals are critical for smartphones, computers, and renewable energy. Mining them has environmental impacts...

Freshwater is a limited resource, with most stored in glaciers and aquifers. Over-pumping groundwater leads to depletion...

This NGSS-aligned reading passage explains how climate zones—based on the Köppen Climate Classification System—affect li...

This passage introduces elementary students to the concept of a *hemisphere*, explaining how Earth can be divided into h...

This passage introduces elementary students to the *topographic map*, a special kind of map that shows *elevation* and *...

This engaging passage introduces elementary students to the concept of cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west....

This short passage teaches students about intermediate directions—northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest—which f...

This passage introduces young students to physical maps and explains how they show Earth's natural features such as moun...

This passage teaches students about population maps, a kind of thematic map that shows how many people live in different...

This passage introduces elementary students to political maps, which show how land is divided into countries, states, an...

This reading passage introduces students to the *Western Hemisphere*, the half of the Earth located west of the *Prime M...

This passage teaches elementary students which continents are found in the *Western Hemisphere*, including North America...

This passage introduces elementary students to the *Northern Hemisphere*, the half of Earth that lies above the *Equator...

This passage explains the difference between the *Northern Hemisphere* and the *Southern Hemisphere*, the two halves of ...

This passage teaches students about the *Equator*, the imaginary line that divides Earth into the *Northern* and *Southe...

This passage introduces students to countries located on the *Equator*, including Ecuador, Brazil, Kenya, and Indonesia....

This engaging passage explains the concept of cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—and their importance in n...

This passage explains the *Prime Meridian*, the imaginary line that runs from the *North Pole* to the *South Pole* and d...

This passage explains that the *Prime Meridian* is the line of *0 degrees longitude* that divides the Earth into the *Ea...

This passage teaches students about capitalization rules for direction words such as north, south, east, and west. It ex...

This middle school reading passage explains how solar panels work by turning sunlight into electricity. The passage desc...

This NGSS-aligned reading passage for middle school students explains how wind turbines convert the energy of moving air...

This NGSS-aligned science passage for middle school students explains how hydroelectric dams work to produce clean, rene...

This NGSS-aligned middle school science passage explains what biofuel is, how it is made, and why it is important as a c...

This engaging reading passage for middle school students introduces tidal energy, a form of renewable energy that uses t...

This passage introduces middle school students to wave energy—a clean, renewable energy source that comes from the movem...

This science passage introduces middle school students to the concept of green energy—clean, renewable energy that comes...

In this passage, students explore Earth as their home planet. They learn that Earth is made of land, water, and air, and...

This reading passage teaches elementary students about *Latitude*, one of the basic tools of geography. Students learn t...

This NGSS-aligned middle school passage explains the major causes of sea level rise, including melting glaciers and ther...

This NGSS-aligned reading passage introduces middle school students to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IP...

This reading passage introduces students to the role of a climatologist, a scientist who studies long-term climate patte...

This engaging and informative science passage is designed for middle school students and aligned with NGSS standard MS-E...

This NGSS-aligned middle school science passage introduces students to biomass energy, a renewable energy source made fr...

This middle school science passage explains how hydroelectric power plants generate electricity using the energy of movi...

The Adriatic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea of significant geographical and historical importance. This educational passage ...