Today, Wednesday April 22, 2026 is Earth Day. This year's theme is "Our Power, Our Planet," focusing on climate, renewable energy, and environmental justice.
Here are some activities to engage your class with these themes through maps:
| Explore power plants
Follow along and explore how power plant fuels are represented within the US and globally. See the power plant fuels used in each state as well as the what could be powered using the power generated by global power plants. |
Connecting maps and data: Climate change
Explore temperature anomalies across the globe over time. Look at the climate groups and how some areas are changing classification. |  |
 | Trees!
Map trees in your community and see those mapped by others. This StoryMap let's you add trees to the map and explore those added by others using a map and a dashboard. |
Read a story: Celebrate Earth Day every day!
Read a story from the Celebrate Earth Day every day collection. Explore human impacts on earth, forests, diversity, sea ice, 50 years of imagery showing changes to Earth, and more.
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| Earth Science activities for MapMaker
Volcanos, seasons, biomes, rivers, mountains, and more! Explore Earth and the processes that shape it using Nationals Geographic MapMaker. |
Explore in MapMaker
While not an explicit activity, MapMaker has tons of maps and data about our planet that you can have students explore. What patterns can they find? Which data about Earth is surprising to them? Or maybe they just want to explore their neighborhood using imagery.
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If you try one of these out, comment and let us know how you adapted it for your class and how it went.
